“Taking care that my life is neat & clean enough, so that the Lord may find me worthily waiting and He may dine with me!”

(Based on 1 Thess 3:7-13 and Mt 24:42-51 – Thursday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Week)

Let’s get into some visual imagination to help today’s reflection process…

Imagine a Person comes into the room of your heart, this evening.

He is charming…

He is there with a purpose…
He is imposing with His charisma…

As this Fascinating Person approaches the door of your room, ready to step-in, some flash thoughts pass through your mind…

“The magazines and the books on my table…

Do I need to hide them or keep them away, so that He doesn’t feel shocked at the kind of materials I read?

The wallpaper on my laptop and mobile, and the pictures that are pasted in my room and stored in my phone…

Do I need to change them or dispose them off, so that He doesn’t realise the ‘visual food’ that is often fed to my mind?

The music that is blaring in my room, and to which I tap my feet…

Do I need to put it off and plunge the room into a silent mode, so that He doesn’t feel offended by the ‘audio junk’ that I dance to?

The websites that I browse through, the chats that I engage in and the jokes that I think of…

Do I need to forcefully shut-down my system or delete all the unnecessary files, so that He doesn’t come to know the ‘e-waste’ that I bombard my life with?”

Well, the time is too short…’cos He is fast approaching me!

Have I made a mess of my life…
… filling it with filth or unwanted aspects of life…?
… missing out on opportunities to do good or render service…?
… engaging in activities that are just not worth being exposed to…?

The Charismatic Person is all set to enter my room…
Have I made myself worthy and prepared, to allow Him to enter…?

Well, no prizes for guessing who this Mysterious Person is, that we are imagining about…
… Yes, JESUS – the Lord and Saviour, and the Judge who is coming into this world!

Is my heart ready to receive Him?

The Gospel of the Day is a powerful preaching by Jesus on the need to remain ready for His second coming.

Chapter 24 of the Gospel of St Matthew…
… begins with Jesus addressing His disciples on the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple(Mt 24: 1ff)
… and continues, with Jesus further explaining the forthcoming persecutions and calamities that were to befall

With this background, Jesus speaks of the need to be “watchful” at all times (Mt 24: 42) and explicates it, with the help of the Parable of the Unfaithful Servant (Mt 24: 45-51)

One of the important realities of human life is “unexpectedness”

“Unexpectedness” strikes at many turns of life…
… an unexpected sickness or disease which pushes people into the pit of anxiety and worry
… an unexpected misunderstanding which damages and crushes our relationship with one another
… an unexpected financial crisis which drowns individuals or families into the sea of hopelessness

This “unexpectedness” can also strike our spiritual life!
And this is the danger, that to which the Lord raises our attention towards, by means of the parable of the Unfaithful Servant.

In the parable, the servant was entrusted with the duties of the household, while his master was away.

But when the worm of wickedness crept into the mind of the servant, he said, “My Master is delayed” (Mt 24: 48)

This is very much possible and practically happening in many of our lives.

As Christians, our Blessed Lord, the Great Master has entrusted many responsibilities and duties, to us, His servants.

But often times, we tend to live in the comfort of telling ourselves that “My Master is delayed” or that “My Master is not watching me”

This feeling of the “Lord not being around me” makes us to somehow get into activities and engage in pastimes that are not worthy of our lives…

We let our moral lives be loosened..
We allow our prayer lives to be haywire…
We permit our sacramental life to be lethargic…
We enable our social life to be without the power of the Lord…

But the consequences of such “letting loose” can be disastrous, as the parable teaches us.

What is needed therefore….
… is a constant vigilance and a relentless perseverance in being faithful
… is an unfailing performance of our duties and being on the guard at all times

St Paul reminds us of the Faithfulness of the Lord, through his letter to the Church at Corinth: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord!” (1 Cor 1:9)

The Lord is knocking at the door of our hearts (Rev 3:20)

Is my life neat and clean enough to allow the Lord to enter in…?
… or do I need to make suitable alterations and necessary repentance so that the Lord may find me worthily waiting and He may dine with me?

God Bless! Live Jesus!

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Discovering the beauty of the Catholic Church through the Catechism

Since the Ascension, God’s plan has entered into its fulfilment.
We are already at “the last hour”.
“Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real but imperfect.”
Christ’s kingdom already manifests its presence through the miraculous signs that attend its proclamation by the Church.
Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled “with power and great glory” by the King’s return to earth.
This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover.
Until everything is subject to him, “until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in Her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God.”

That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ’s return by saying to him: “Maranatha! Our Lord, come!” (Cf. CCC # 670-671)