Saturday 34th week even numbered year “Be watchful, or your hearts will be coarsened by debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that day will come upon you unexpectedly.”
Jesus is talking about the Coming of the Son of man and he multiplies his exhortations.He desires so much that we be happy, so he repeats his advice to us to be prudent and vigilant so as to avoid to be worn about by what’s going on today in the world.
Little by little our fervour can be taken away and we can get stuck into routines. For indeed in our everyday lives there is nothing much new, we do the same things , very often without any opening to any future! We can vey well lose the aim to which every human existence must move towards. We might then have the impression of going round in circles, void of a lively hope.
The secret of Jesus’ Gospel is vigilance : ’Be watchful. Be awake and pray all the time.’
And so we enter into the victory of love which Jesus came to bring into the world. But we need to recognise that we are poor sinners. We certainly do all we can , with the grace of God, to build up a new world.
“Like a trap, for it will come down on all those living on the face of the earth.”
We remain with a living faith ; God is bursting forth in the whole of creation that we are reminded of his existence at each moment.
Each of us has a conscience which places us before the Reality of God. Whatever difficulties we may be in with our brothers, we keep the hope of Christ’s victory. We wish to remain in Love and to be on the watch. The Spirit of God works in all our lives well beyond any sorrows we are carrying. In secret our Heavenly Father watches over the life he has given us. We don’t allow our heart to be weighed down by the worries of this life, we want to fight against them by giving this world first of all over to God who comes to fill all we are lacking. And so a new world is built up.We have an absolute necessity for the
Lord to come to our help in order to come to our aid during this seemingly endless watch.
Communion in prayer obtains the strength to float along and to move towards the blessed encounter with the One who created us out of Love.
“So stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to hold your ground before the Son of man.”
It is in prayer that we are going to overcome our letting go and everything that takes us far from life.
Jesus cries out aloud : ’Stay awake and pray at all times.’
We desire to be alive, not in the dreams of sleep, but to be awake, free and responsible, to progress in hope and love towards the Son of man.
His Love is waiting for us, the temptation may be not to remain in a state of prayer! Don’t let your hearts be weighed down’ says Jesus.
Faced with all our worries in life, we remain vigilant.
“Watch, or your hearts will be coarsened by debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will come upon you unexpectedly.”
Remain watchful, awake, praying at all times, this is how God asks us to be his witnesses in a world of suffering.
The transformation brought about by Love is not always made apparent, yet Jesus’ invitation is certain.
Jesu came to spread a fire on earth and his greatest desire is that the world be taken up with the flames of His Love. It is a fire that works in the secret of our hearts.