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Thursday – Twenty-first Week – OT2
Readings: I Cor 1:1-9; Mt 24:42-51.
Reading 1 (I Cor 1:1-9):
Paul, called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
and Sosthenes our brother,
to the Church of God that is in Corinth,
to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy,
with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always on your account
for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
that in him you were enriched in every way,
with all discourse and all knowledge,
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He will keep you firm to the end,
irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful,
and by him you were called.
Gospel (Mt 24:42-51):
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this:
if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,
whom the master has put in charge of his household
to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day
and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely
and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
Fr. Anthony Dinh Minh Tien, O.P.
I. THEME: God equips people enough to reach the heavenly kingdom.
There is a story which reported the conversation between St. John Bosco and children as follows: One day he asked them, “If God called you to Him now, what should you do?” One said, “I shall look for a priest in a church to have confession.” Other said, “I shall go home and say good-bye to my parents.” Lastly, there is one who said, “I shall continue what I am doing.” He praised the child that he is very wise. In order to say that the child must be very confident in what he lives.
Today readings want to emphasize the confident attitude which the faithful must have in life. In the first reading, St. Paul confirmed with the Corinthians that God equips for them all necessary things so that they can reach the ultimate goal He predestines for them, such as: the Church, the Scripture, grace and revelation. They only need to open their heart to receive and to obey what He teaches them. In the Gospel, Jesus told his disciples a parable to remind them two attitudes they can fall in: either a faithful and ready attitude to wait for His master or a lazy attitude because he thinks his master shall not come back for a long time. Jesus wanted his disciples to live according to the first attitude.
II. ANALYSIS:
1/ Reading I: St. Paul listed out the necessary equipment which God prepares for people.
(1) The Church: Even though Jesus is no longer present with people in a visible way, but he still stay with them in many invisible ways. One of these ways is his presence in the Church, the apostles and their successors. He presents not only with the universal Church, but also with the local churches, such as: Corinth, Thessalonica, Ephesus, Colossae, etc. The purpose of his presence is to continue to teach, to guide and to bless all people at everywhere. The unity of all members of the Church was expressed through Paul’s greeting to the church at Corinth: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”
(2) God’s words: The faithful are heard and understood God’s mysteries. One of important equipment which God prepared for people is the Scripture. It can be said that there is nothing which people need to know isn’t in Scripture. When Jesus came, he revealed to people all of God’s mysteries; if he doesn’t reveal, people can’t understand these mysteries. St. Paul said, “in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you.”
(3) People aren’t lacking any blessing in Christ: Beside God’s words, all necessary graces are given to people through the sacraments and through the Church in special occasions. If people frequently receive the Eucharist and Penance sacraments, they shall not be lacking necessary grace for their life. The indifference with the sacraments prevents people to have necessary grace to fight against temptation and overcome sufferings of life. St. Paul ascertained this when he said: “I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus… so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(4) God let people know the ultimate goal of their life through Christ’s teaching about the Last Day: The difference between the Catholics and the believer of other religion is that the Catholics clearly knew about the ultimate goal of life and what they need to do to attain that goal. If they knew all of these important things, the Catholics must peacefully prepare for the day which they shall reach this goal.
2/ Gospel: We must prepare to come to God when we still have time.
Jesus revealed to us this important information about the Last Day in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 24-25: First, that Day shall certainly be happened. Secondly, only the Father knows the day and the hours when it happens. To prepare for that Day, people need to do the following things:
(1) To be prepared: The unexpected element shall happen on the last Day; therefore, all need to be prepared. Today Gospel used the image of a thief to emphasize the unexpected element: “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” To be prepared is to have all necessary things to present before God, such as: to have a strong faith in God, to love and to help others and to be clean of all sins.
(2) To fulfill our daily duties: After having been prepared, the faithful need to fulfill their daily duties. One test to recognize who is the wise and faithful person is to visit them unexpected. If he works hard either his master presents or absents and always fulfills his duties, he is the wise and faithful person whom his master can trust and give all important tasks to him.
(3) To be awake and to wait for our Lord by living every day like our last day: One danger which often occurs for the faithful is that Day shall not happen for a long time. This is a sure temptation of the devil and many people felt in this trap. Some said that “I am still young so that God shall not call me. I will enjoy my life to the fullest and repent when I am old.” Others reasoned, “I don’t need to be a Christian now because if I am, I must keep countless of laws and make confessions. I shall wait until I lie on the death bed, then I shall convert because the good Lord shall also pay me a denarius even, I worked only one hour.” But they forgot about the unexpected element of life, God can take them away when they are unprepared as the unworthy servant in today reading.
III. APPLICATION IN LIFE:
– We must be firm in God’s teaching, don’t be swayed by new doctrines. Living in a society with many different religions and new doctrines, the Catholics must be firmed in their faith.
– We must always be prepared and live our present life in peace and hope.
– What we want and need to do, go ahead and do them when the sun still shines, our mind is sharp, and our body is healthy. When the day is dark, our mind is dull and our body is painful, we can’t do anything we want to.