19 OCTOBER 2021 LUKE 35-38
Tuesday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
VIGILANCE
“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning” (Luke 12:35).
There is an Aesop fable of an astronomer who went around walking observing stars and as he was only looking at the sky unfortunately he happened to fall into a well. He started screaming aloud, not being able to come out. Now a man walking that way heard his loud cry and helped him to come out of the well. The astronomer asked the other man, ‘Why do such terrible things happen to me?’ The man replied, ‘Sir, while you place all your attention on the mysteries of the sky, you must also pay attention to things here on this earth.’
In today’s gospel through two similes, namely, ‘fastened belt’ (always get ready for take-off or to face death) and ‘lighted lamp’ (always ready with a lighted lamp because of the possibility of a brown out any time); so that we will be prepared to receive the Christ when he returns in glory. If Jesus came as a savior in his first coming on his second coming he will be a judge. Jesus reminds us to be on alert not only about the end, but also about our responsibility towards the present.
Cardinal Newman tells, ‘Fear not your life will come to an end, fear rather it will never come to a beginning.’ The best time is now and the best day is today. Every moment has an eternal significance because only in our present time can we prove to be ourselves true to God’s graciousness and to have hope in the goodness of God. This is why Mother Theresa said, ‘no one becomes a saint after death, after death only one is named as a saint. One has to become a saint when alive!’ Amen.