Glory be to Jesus Christ!
I remember a sign that hung over a fellow priest’s office door which read “Jesus is coming, look busy!” In our Gospel today we are reminded of the return of our Lord and our need to be prepared for it.
The disciples receive instruction from our Lord today about the coming of the Son of Man and what that will be like. As people were caught unaware by the destruction of their well-laid plans (people in Noah’s time, etc.) throughout history, so it will be when the Son of Man comes. But this reading does not simply refer to a future event, but the general attitude Christians should have throughout their lives. The Lord is coming and could arrive at any moment. This moment as shown to the disciples is not simply the destruction of Sodom, the world by Noah’s flood, or even the destruction of Jerusalem, which will occur shortly after Our Lord’s teaching to these disciples in 70 AD. This is the moment that all those things in our lives which do not stand up to the Lord’s truth will pass away. This Gospel is not a history lesson or even mainly about prophesy, it’s about conversion. Expectation of the Lord’s arrival is every moment. As Catherine Doherty says “Every moment is the moment of beginning again.”
Brothers and sisters, we have been given a wonderful opportunity to begin again and prepare for the Lord’s arrival through His Incarnation which we will be celebrating at Christmas. What we embark on now is the blessed time of preparing for His arrival through our St. Philip’s Fast.
Over this season strive to increase your prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Identify those areas in your life which have not been prepared for the visitation of the King of Kings to your house, your office, classroom, bedroom, your very soul. What are the things which need changing?
Let us enter the fast with joy and so prepare to greet the coming of the Son of Man, born a little Child for our salvation!
