This and That BLOG

Today is the thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time.

If you look at today’s readings and listen to the Alleluia verse, it is clear we’re being reassured about life after death and urged to pay attention to what’s happening.

I think the admonishment to stay awake is closely related to acting intentionally. In fact, it feels to me that acting intentionally in our faith leads almost inextricably to staying awake spiritually speaking.

In the early days of Christianity, maybe even before it was called that, it was a common belief that Christ would return before the current generation died. St. Paul’s reading today alludes to that belief. It seems there was a lot of effort being put into determining when that would happen. This is all common language and thought from the last month in Ordinary Time, November. The end of Ordinary Time is mostly about the Second Coning of Christ, what the church calls the Parousia. That is also the subject of the first part of Advent.

Acting intentionally and staying awake are still the best way to remain engaged in our faith. Given everything else going on around us and around the world it can be a chore but one worth working at.

The new liturgical year, which starts the first Sunday of Advent, is three weeks from today. Far from pre-Christmas as we sometimes tend to view it, Advent is better understood as a mini-Lent. That’s not a perfect analogy but it’s close. Those first weeks of Advent, this year exactly two weeks across three Sundays, are the perfect time to be introspective about our readiness for that Second Coming we’re hearing about today. In my view the perfect way to do that is to set about doing some things in an intentional way, just as we do more formally during Lent. Choose some activities that can help you do that and include them in your daily/weekly schedule. Maybe add an extra weekday Mass each week, or read the daily Mass readings each day, or spend some time in Adoration. There are a lot of things you might do, but instead of just thinking about them, actually do them. We don’t get credit for the things we thought about doing but didn’t actually do.

I realize there’s a lot of competition for our time this time of year. Thanksgiving will be here in a couple of weeks and then we have to get ready for Christmas. Those are good things and we need to celebrate them well. We also need to prepare for the end of our earthly lives. We need to do both. One of the tricks of being a Christian is to live in this world and enjoy what God has given us while not being of the world so much that we are like the foolish virgins.

The liturgies of November and the first 16 days of December call us to consider death and how we will spend eternity. One day Christ WILL return. No one knows when that day will happen but we believe it will surely happen. Acting intentionally and staying awake will help us prepare for that eventuality.

After writing the above on Thursday I read Bishop Barron’s reflection on the Friday Gospel (the Parable of the dishonest steward) on Friday morning. He ended it by writing:

“The Lord told the parable to urge us to carefully examine our spiritual condition. His desire is that we choose to renew our relationship with him. He wants us to take stock of our weaknesses and make a firm resolution to acquire necessary strengths to fix them.

If your prayer life is weak, act to give it new life. If you have not been worshiping fervently at Mass, decide to participate more fully. If you have a broken relationship, repair it. And so on. Decide now, then act.”

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.

I hope you have a great week.

Peace, Bob