Cycle C - Year II:  

7 August 2016: Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical color: Green)

Gospel: Please read  Luke 12:32-48

Stay Vigilant!

There is truth in the wise words that "Today is the first day of the rest of your life!"  But also it may be that today is actually the last day of our earthly journey, and that there is no more tomorrow. How would you spend your last day?

How we deal with the last day spells the difference between believers and non-believers. For those who believe, we know that life is not ended; it is only changed. But for non-believers, there is nothing more after this life. So enjoy and be merry till the end.

Whether believers or non-believers, the sure thing that will happen is the "end time". Everyone and everything will come to pass some day. For the living, "death" is our experience of the end time. For human beings in particular, it may come at any time, at any age, anywhere. In a way, those who know they are dying of terminal illness may even feel blessed, for they can actually prepare for death. But others are put off just with the thought of dying soon, and may rebel against anybody, against the world, and even against God. They are in denial mode and refuse to prepare for death. The majority of us have no idea or don't get any advance warning of the end time.It can come like a thief in the night, at an hour we don't expect, and thus may catch us unprepared.

The sad thing is that we are a society of procrastinators. Whether we just don't want to face difficult challenges in life, or we are afraid to fail, and so we have the tendency to say, "I'll do it later."

This Sunday's liturgy is about our vigilant faith. The theme of readiness for the second coming of the Lord is to be found towards the end of the Gospel account from St. Luke.

The message of the parable in the Gospel reading is that disciple-

servant must be ready for the return of the master, who will come and knock at the door "at an hour we do not expect." So we must be like the faithful servants who stay awake for their master.

Likewise, we don't know when the Master will come and take us to the heavenly banquet of eternal union with God. Will we be ready by that time? But we will not be ready when we are more interested in feeding our worldly desires. So our Lord Jesus warns us not to waste time being lazy about purging our lives of earthly treasurers.

In practical life, how do we prepare for the end time? In other words, since we do not know when death will come, what should we do?

Jesus says that we must stand ready at all times. We don't wait for God to tell us when or where we will die, because He will not tell us. Instead, we must live a life of vigilant faith, putting things right today, here and now. We need to open our hearts and minds so that we shall be aware of the Lord's coming into our lives. There is nothing more urgent today than to cleanse our heart and pray for God's forgiveness. Then we need not worry when the call to final judgment comes.

Because for the good Christians, death will be our graduation day, and not an examination day.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!