At An Hour You Do Not Expect, The Son Of Man Will Come

October 24, 2007

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

“...Do not present the parts of your body to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life, and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness.” (Romans 6:13)

“Be sure of this: 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. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” (Luke 12: 39-40)

Piety

Lord, help me to praise You and be ready for You, even in those times I might find Your presence “inconvenient.” Let me put aside my humanness in favor of Your guidance.

Study

Today's Readings

http://www.wau.org/current/article.asp?id=5007

The times that life is going well for us can be the easiest for evil to slip in. We’re just humming along with family responsibilities, prayer time, church, work, friends, and neighbors. In fact, things can be going so well that it can be easy to start cutting corners: “It really won’t matter if I skip Mass this week.” “No one will notice if I’m not at the parish or diocesan Ultreya.” We can lose some of our passion for Christ and our Christian lives when we are self-satisfied.

A beautiful article from The Word Among Us titled “From Glory to Glory, The Promise of Spiritual Transformation,” addresses the issue:

If we were to take an accounting of our lives, we might find a curious mixture. On one hand, we have the Holy Spirit living in our hearts. We have the Bread of Life to nourish us spiritually. We have Scripture to teach us and the saints to inspire us. We have a rich tradition of prayer and the promise of forgiveness whenever we confess our sins. With all of these gifts and blessings, we should be able to live holy lives; we should be able to reflect the glory of the Lord.
Yet, even with all of these gifts and blessings, our fallen nature—that part of us that rejects Jesus and wants to live by its own rules—still tries to convince us that we don’t need Jesus. It still tries to tell us that we are capable of doing the job on our own. But no matter how our fallen nature tries to persuade or manipulate us, it is always asking us the same question: “Do you really need the Holy Spirit?”

Of course, if that question were asked of us in those exact words, we would answer with a resounding “yes!” But it’s usually asked in far more subtle ways. “You’ve already prayed today; do you really need to pay close attention to your thoughts now?” “Religion is fine, as long as it’s put in its proper place. Do you really think God expects you to practice kindness all the time?” “You’re tired; don’t worry about examining your conscience tonight. You don’t think it makes a difference anyway… Do you?”

So the questions go, until we end up—often without even realizing it—relying solely on human logic and human strength instead of seeking the guidance of divine wisdom. It can be tempting to think that if our prayer life is going well, we don’t have to be vigilant in other aspects of our lives. But God wants to transform our whole lives. He wants every part of us to be filled with his life and love.

Let us be present and mindful every day, through the good times and the bad. Let us be ready when the Master comes.

Action

Where have you become complacent in your relationship with Christ? Raise up that complacency in piety, action, or study, and turn it on its head. Develop a new action plan for your faith, or change up your prayer practice, or read an inspirational book by an author you don’t know. Be open to transformation.