Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Living in constant preparedness for the coming of the Lord into our lives can be an exhausting prospect and, for many, an equally exhausting reality. The Christian life is often not easy. But today Jesus reminds us that all that effort, ultimately, is worthwhile. Do not give up on prayer, do not quit asking God for all that you need.
He assures us that God will answer our prayers, and He will not delay in His response. Much like the promise of Jesus earlier in Luke when He says, ““And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:9-13)
Brothers and sisters, we shouldn’t wait in fear of the Lord but rather in joy of receiving Him, trusting that whatever we feel we lack, He will provide. So often we look to the “merchants” of the world and barter for what we want; we focus on ourselves as though we were our own master. We sometimes, too, become so focused on those wants that we forget the gratitude we ought to have toward the God who has provided all, and in our absent-mindedness we are startled when, suddenly, the Jesus we had long forgotten is suddenly before us. What time we do give to Him is sometimes given with half-attention, with our mind focused on what we left unfinished or what has yet to come but we are not present to Him, as He is so generously present to us.
Let this past week and the coming days leading up to the Solemnity of Christ the King be an opportunity to hear the distant cries of John the Baptist, “Prepare the way of the Lord”: prepare His way to your heart. Allow Him to cleanse you inside and out by going to regular confession; keep His temple within yourself uncluttered and orderly so that you may make for Him a home rather than a guestroom or a parlor. Do all that you can so that each and every time you approach Him in the Eucharist you are giving yourself as completely to Him as He is giving Himself entirely to you.