As we get close to the end of our Church’s liturgical year, our liturgy for this 33rd Sunday in Ordinary time focuses on the end times, when Christ will come again. We are called to be vigilant and to be ready at all times.
The Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. People will say “peace and security,” but suddenly, disaster will come. But, the people will not escape. St Paul wrote these words to the Christian community he founded in the busy Greek seaport of Thessalonica. The members of that Christian community were Gentiles, converts from pagan religions. They put aside the other messages that were calling out to them in the world in order to follow the Way of Jesus. St Paul had to leave that community abruptly, but he remained concerned for their welfare. He encouraged them in his letter in the midst of their trials, struggles, and persecutions. The Thessalonians wondered since the years were passing by since Jesus’ death and resurrection if his return would ever come. St Paul told them that Christ’s second Coming would arrive at an unannounced time, but that the day would indeed come, so they needed to be ready at all times.
In the psalm today, we hear the refrain proclaimed: Blessed are those who fear the Lord. In our Catholic faith, just as in the Jewish faith, fear does not mean being afraid of God or having a sense of terror against him. Rather, it is a sense of reverence toward God, to worship him in awe and wonder. We are to avoid sin and temptation and to not become too overly attached to the created things of this world, making them idols, out of love and reverence for God. Out of this awe and reverence, we are to grow in our profound respect for the majesty of God, to see him as the Supreme being and to see ourselves as his creation. We are to surrender to God and to be dependent on him, to never want to be separated from God and his love.
To be ready at all times and to have a reverence for God, these are not just ideas, but something we are called to do in our daily lives. It is just like when we had our ACTS retreat for women several weeks ago or when I went on a workshop and retreat last week or when the youth go to a convention. It is great that we have a wonderful time at those events and have a mountaintop experience, but when we come down the mountain, how do we incorporate the spirit of those experiences into daily life?
The answer to this question can be found in some words spoken by Pope Leo. On October 22, he spoke at an international congress for Pastoral Care in Schools and Universities at the Vatican. What he said can apply to all of our journeys of faith, not just in the context of Catholic schools. He said that we must nurture the hearts and minds of our students, to emphasize active service, education, and the spiritual life. Our schools should be welcoming homes for their students, just as parishes should be welcoming homes for all Catholics. Pope Leo stated that our faith formation needs to help us “experience the beauty of an encounter with Christ, and the fruitfulness of the synergy between faith and reason, between the knowledge of the faith and other forms of knowledge.” He also stated that charity and prayer are inseparable.
Another thing that struck me in Pope Leo’s comments: He said that service to others and helping the poor are essential parts of our life of discipleship and essential in expanding the capacity to care in our children and our youth. Service to the poor and to our neighbor should not been seen as an extracurricular activity, but as an important part of who we are. When I ask parishioners to donate hygiene items to the inmates or to make a tray of sandwiches and cookies for them, it is a part of our Catholic prison ministry that includes a couple of Masses and a couple of word and communion services a week, ministerial visits to sick inmates and to the inmates in the behavioral modification unit, a Knights of Columbus group for inmates, a gardening program, an OCIA program, small prayer groups, and many other things. When someone helps out in the prison ministry, it is part of this entire plan of ministry, not just one isolated action. And I could not do this ministry alone without so many different people helping in many different ways.
You hear me as a priest state at the end of Mass, “Go forth and live the Gospel.” How do we do that? How do we go into the world and live the values of our faith? How are we preparing to be ready for Jesus when he comes again? We must strive for a balanced life of faith in order to be ready.
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