20170831
ALERT TO JESUS’ COMING IN OUR MIDST
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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1 Thessalonians 3:7-13 ©
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Brothers, your faith has been a great comfort to us in the middle
of our own troubles and sorrows; now we can breathe again, as you are still
holding firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you, for all the joy
we feel before our God on your account? We are earnestly praying night and day
to be able to see you face to face again and make up any shortcomings in your
faith.
May God our
Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, make it easy for us to come to you.
May the Lord be generous in increasing your love and make you love one another
and the whole human race as much as we love you. And may he so confirm your
hearts in holiness that you may be blameless in the sight of our God and Father
when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his saints.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 89(90):3-4,12-14,17 ©
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Fill us with your love that we may rejoice.
You turn men back to dust
and say: ‘Go back, sons of men.’
To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
no more than a watch in the night.
Fill us with your love that we may rejoice.
Make us know the shortness of our life
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?
Show pity to your servants.
Fill us with your love that we may rejoice.
In the morning, fill us with your love;
we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Let the favour of the Lord be upon us:
give success to the work of our hands.
Fill us with your love that we may rejoice.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn15:15
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Mt24:42,44
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Stay awake and stand ready,
because you do not know the hour
when the Son of Man is coming.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 24:42-51 ©
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Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Stay awake, because you do not know
the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this, that if the
householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he
would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the
wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man
is coming at an hour you do not expect.
‘What sort
of servant, then, is faithful and wise enough for the master to place him over
his household to give them their food at the proper time? Happy that servant if
his master’s arrival finds him at this employment. I tell you solemnly, he will
place him over everything he owns. But as for the dishonest servant who says to
himself, “My master is taking his time,” and sets about beating his fellow
servants and eating and drinking with drunkards, his master will come on a day
he does not expect and at an hour he does not know. The master will cut him off
and send him to the same fate as the hypocrites, where there will be weeping
and grinding of teeth.’
ALERT TO JESUS’ COMING IN OUR MIDST
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 Thess 3:7-13; Ps 90:3-4,12-14,17; Mt 24:42-51 ]
We all have
been given responsibilities in this world. We have a part to play
in the economy of salvation. But many of us are not taking our
responsibilities seriously. Some of us are callous in the way we
handle them. Some of us are irresponsible, like the dishonest steward.
He said to himself, “‘My master is taking his time,’ and sets about beating his
fellow servants and eating and drinking with drunkards, his master will come on
a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know.” Indeed, we
think we have much time. But this is an illusion, for our time is
short. As the psalmist says, “You turn men back to dust and say: ‘Go
back, sons of men.’ To your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday,
come and gone, no more than a watch in the night.”
As a result,
we become complacent. We fall into sin. We act irresponsibly,
thinking that we have all the time in this world to repent. We fail to
value the gifts and tasks that the Lord has entrusted to us. We take them
for granted and even get used to our offices. Instead of using them for
the service of all, we use the authority and privileges of our office for our
self-interests, our own needs and convenience. We lose the sense of
urgency and fall into indifference.
Most of all,
we waste the opportunity to meet the Lord who comes to us each day through the daily
events in our lives. He comes as a friend, as a beggar, as a mother in
pain, a wife wounded by betrayal, a man in anxiety, a child in loneliness, a
man who is suffering from an incurable sickness, a woman going through much
pain. We miss all these opportunities, like the dishonest steward who
failed to exercise his responsibilities. Instead, he was waiting for the
master to return when he had already come in his fellow servants. This
was the mistake of the dishonest steward. Hence the Lord said, “The
master will cut him off and send him to the same fate as the hypocrites, where
there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.'” It will be too late when
he comes to realize how much he had missed out in life.
Hence, the
call of the gospel is to stay awake. “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Stay
awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming.”
Indeed, life is short. We must make the best of this life. We need
to live well and make use of all the blessings He has given us, for we are all
stewards of His grace and blessings. We are given such privileges not for
ourselves or for our personal enjoyment but for the good of others. This was
the mistake of the dishonest steward. He was irresponsible and he was not
aware of the Lord’s presence in his daily life. He was not alert to
the Lord because he allowed the devil to mislead him. He was not
alert to the devil’s strategy of leading him to do the wrong things, or the
right things for the wrong reasons. Hence, Jesus asks us to be alert to
the burglar that comes into our lives. Who is this burglar if not the
evil spirit who steals our hearts away from God and His people. Indeed,
Jesus said, “You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known
at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake
and would not have allowed anyone to break the wall of his house.”
But being
alert to the Lord’s coming is more than just being responsible in our work. We can be hardworking
but we might have the wrong motives. The heart is not there. It is
not done out of love. It is just a job or a duty. We can be
involved in many projects and active in many programs. But it is
reducible to mere responsibility. We do it out of duty, like many
Catholics who fulfill their Catholic duties. But there is no joy and no
love in it. They do them grudgingly and even with a hidden hostility
against God and the Church for having placed such obligations on them.
For others, they can be doing their work but in a condescending manner, as if
they are the generous ones giving away their precious time and resources, not
realizing what they came from God. Others still, are apparently
responsible in their work. They are very efficient and organized.
But their motivation springs from insecurity and ambition. They want to prove
themselves to be the best organizer, administrator and leader. They get
defensive and discouraged when they are criticized.
But what we
need to do is to do it out of love for Christ and our fellowmen. Only when there is love, can
we recognize the Lord in those whom we serve and those we serve can recognize
the Christ in us. This was the case of the apostles. Paul in the
first reading expressed his caring love for the early Christians. It was
one of his earliest letters to the Christian community. He was
ministering there with Silas and Timothy. He wrote to them with much
affection and gentleness to encourage them in their afflictions and to help them
to form the right views about the Second Coming of the Lord. It was not
written out of anger or duty but purely out of love. It was a letter
written to encourage and console. “We are earnestly praying night and day
to be able to see you face to face again and make up any shortcomings in your
faith. May God our Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, make it
easy for us to come to you.”
Where does
this love come from? It must come from the Lord Himself. St Paul wrote, “May the Lord
be generous in increasing your love and make you love one another and the whole
human race as much as we love you.” We need to experience His love
and mercy as St Paul did to be able to offer the Good News freely and in love.
That is why the psalmist prayed, “Fill us with your love that we may
rejoice. In the morning, fill us with your love; we shall exult and
rejoice all our days. Let the favour of the Lord be upon us: give success
to the work of our hands.”.
Secondly, the
love of God comes from encouragement from each other. We are called to
inspire each other by our faith. “Brothers, your faith has been a great comfort
to us in the middle of our own troubles and sorrows; now we can breathe again,
as you are still holding firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough
for you, for all the joy we feel before our God on your account?” Truly,
as Christians we can pull each other down or build each other up. We are
called to offer ourselves as an inspiration to each other. If only we
affirm and encourage each other more often, we will receive the love of God
through each other. We need mentors to help us grow and be firm in our
faith and endeavors.
Thirdly, we
are called to receive the love of God and be alert to His coming in
prayer. If we want to be conscious of His coming and presence in our
lives, we need only to pray. Prayer enables us to see Him in different
ways with the heart of love. So long as we are blind to His coming, we
will not be able to find Him in daily life. We need to pray so that we
can see the love of God for us in the daily events in our lives. Often we
take the good things in life for granted. We forget to see His presence
in our daily encounters with people. That is why we do not give thanks
each day. If only we spend each evening of the day to count our blessings
and give thanks for all that happened in the day, and how His love was shown to
us, and the joys we received, we will become more loving and grateful people.
Finally, we
know that God is with us when we live our lives with a clear conscience. St Paul says, “And
may he so confirm your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless in the
sight of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his
saints.” We must live a blameless life, which is to know that we have
done all we could according to our circumstances in life to offer all back to
God and for His people, keeping nothing for ourselves. When we have
done everything with purity of intention, for His greater glory and for the
service of His people, and not for our glory or our interests, then we can
surrender all that we do to God without feeling guilty or unsettled. This
is the joy of being ready at all times before the Lord, because our conscience
is clear.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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