Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time – Lk 12:39-48

            Today’s Gospel continues the theme of “watchfulness” that we have been hearing about over the past few days. Here, Jesus also issues a warning: “if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.” This saying reminds us of other, similar ones that we find in the New Testament, where Christ tells us that He will come like “a thief in the night.” Thieves, of course, don’t give any warning that they are coming; the home owner must always be ready. Christ’s coming will be sudden and, although we can read the signs of the times, we don’t know the precise hour or day. To the one who is unprepared, Christ’s Second coming will not be a welcome surprise at all, just like the punishment the servants would receive if the master returned to find them all asleep or the steward who lived poorly and led others astray because he forgot that at some point, his master would return.

            What is it, then, that Christ wants us to do? He tells us to keep watch, to be ready for whenever He returns. How do we do this? By always trying to grow in holiness, to keep striving after perfection. If we find that we’re frightened or worried about Christ’s second coming, or wish that it would be later rather than sooner, we should examine ourselves to see how we are living. If we are afraid of death or the second coming, the problem is not with Christ, but with us and the way we live. A pastor once used to ask his flock, “Do you think Jesus will come today?” Of course, most people told him “No,” to which he would reply, “Be careful! He’ll come when you least expect it!” How differently we would live if we really thought to ourselves, “Jesus will come today!” But, this is the attitude Jesus is asking for!

            To be vigilant means to be ready to go to heaven, and to live my life in light of it. It means trying to follow God’s commandments, which “are not burdensome,” (1 Jn 5:3) as Saint John tells us. God gives us all the graces that we need to get there; all we need to do it live every day in light of it.

            Let us ask, through the intercession of Mary, Queen of Heaven, for the grace to live in such a way as to merit the rewards of eternal life.