My Sisters and Brothers:
In our Christian lives, and as we look to the promise of future glory, I believe we must ask ourselves the following: Do we always say what we mean and do what we say? With this in mind, today we are challenged by our Scriptures to make ourselves ready and to be prepared for both our personal and our communal “final days.” These Scriptures should motivate us to examine the ways in which we do or do not authentically live out our lives as Christians in our own day and time.
It is no coincidence that on this Thirty-third Sunday of the liturgical year, our Scriptures warn us about the “end times” – those days when all things on the earth will cease to be, and when only heavenly realities will remain. Next week, on the Thirty-fourth Sunday, we will celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King and then our liturgical year will come to an end. We will then look to the new liturgical year that will begin on the First Sunday of Advent, November 29th. We should recall today that the Scriptures presented to us on the Sundays of a three-year cycle, and during each liturgical year, are progressively designed to illustrate the life of Jesus and the acts of the early church, and they “tell a story.” This story, like any good book and indeed just like each one of our own personal lives, has a very definite beginning and a certain final chapter. Very soon we will renew this cycle of the Christian “story” when we once again begin the hopeful season of Advent!
And so today, as we begin to close out another liturgical year, and as we literally come to the end of a time, we are reminded that our very lives, and the world and all within it will one day likewise experience a final, definitive day. About that day, the first reading tells us: “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake . . . and the wise shall shine . . . like the stars for ever and ever” (see Daniel 12:2-3). Jesus also tells us in today’s Gospel that “the Son of man . . . will gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven” (see Mark 13:26-27).
As we contemplate these descriptions of that final day, we are obliged to simply ask ourselves the following question: Are we ready? The truth is, if we are good Christians we will always live our lives in such a way as to be ready for the final judgement. With this in mind, we note that Jesus also tells us “but of that day or that hour no one knows” (see Mark 13:32). In other words, we may not have time to “get ready” if our attempts at making ourselves right before God and others are constantly put off for another day.
There is no room for “spiritual procrastination” within mature faith-filled Christian lives. And so my sisters and brothers, if there are things in our lives that keep us from “loving the Lord, our God, with all of our hearts, our beings, our strengths, and our minds, as well as our neighbors as ourselves” (cf., Luke 10:27), then TODAY is the day to change. Not forgiving someone? Now is the time to do it! Not serving the less fortunate? Now is the time to do it! Not praying with devotion every day? Now is the time to do it! Not striving to be the best person possible? Now is the time to do it! Not truly acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? Now is the time to do it!
My sisters, my brothers, let us always be prepared for that final day! May we also always encourage each other, on each and every one of our present days, “to walk the walk, and not simply talk the talk!”
Praise God! Friar Timothy
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