When He Comes and Knocks

Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

Just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19)

Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.  (Psalm 40:8a and 9a)

“Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.” (Luke 12:35-37)

Piety

Lord, help me to be ever-present and responsive to your call.

Study

A dear friend likes to tell a story about a chart, designed to open up dialogue with others or private recollections about pivotal points in your life. It breaks the journey into seven-year segments and aligns them with months of the year. A member of her family was shocked to find while he was in April, she was in November. It didn’t bother her; it worried him.

Another friend once commented that she wouldn’t be around when some of the grand kids graduated from college. I immediately contradicted her; it would only be twenty-one years, of course she’d still be around. Then I realized that would put her in her mid-nineties, and the odds were she’d be right.

It feels like we all and our loved ones have oceans of time on the planet until those little moments bring us up short, oceans of time to get our act together, to start loving instead of hating, to accept instead of judge, to help rather than criticize. But we don’t have oceans of time, not when we are toddlers, not when we are teenagers, not when we are in our thirties and not when we are in our sixties and beyond. We have this moment to prepare for the Lord’s arrival. There’s no need to wring our hands about the way we wasted yesterday, nor do our grandiose plans for how we’ll serve Him “someday” matter much. What we have is today. May we make the most of it in the way we serve and love so that we may be ready no matter when He knocks.

Action

Identify a place in your life where the Lord would find you less than vigilant. Ask for His help in changing that.