Thursday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time
“Stay awake!”
The Scribes and Pharisees, Herod and Herodias: the blind and the deaf. It is easy to dismiss them, easy to look at them and think, “I’m glad I’m not like them.” But so often we are, aren’t we? The good homily, the stirring passage in Scripture, which moves our hearts but we don’t follow through: we hear, but we don’t listen. So often we look to the world for the solution to what is, ultimately, a spiritual problem, or we focus our attention on the perceived goods of the world, losing sight of the greatest Good: we look, but we do not see.
We must, therefore, wake up. And we must stay awake, “…for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”Yes we must have our eyes and ears open to what God is doing and saying here and now, but we must be vigilant for when He comes: both in the sense of the Second Coming, but more so in the sense of our own deaths. In other words we must live ready to die.
This may seem morbid, but consider the rest of our Gospel today regarding the servant who, when his master is long delayed and finally arrives unexpectedly, is found acting prudently, faithfully serving his master even though his master is not around. Contrast this with the servant who, assuming his master will be long delayed, begins to mistreat his fellow servants, and essentially betray his master’s trust. The former servant is rewarded with greater responsibility: the latter is severely punished. The former was awake, alert, with eyes and ears open to the truth that fidelity is not about acting faithful when the master is watching, but is about consistent loyalty and trustworthiness. The latter did not see the master, did not hear his commands, and thus began to live as if there were no master at all until suddenly, to his tremendous regret, the master was there.
How do we wish to meet God: as the faithful servant, or the wicked one? Fortunately for us we need never fall for the lie that our Master has gone away, for He is there in each Catholic parish, silent, but watchful. What is our Sunday-to-Sunday, or even day-by-day encounter with Him like in the Eucharist? Do we present ourselves as faithful servants overjoyed to see Him, or do we come after days of living, in one degree or another, as though He were nowhere to be seen?
Oh Master, give us eyes to see you everywhere, and ears to hear your constant commands! Let us never be caught unaware of you; let us always serve you faithfully: do not cast us out, but give us a place to dwell in your Kingdom forever!