333. Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)

Meditations no. 596 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Considering our lives in the light of faith.

THE LITURGY of the Word this Sunday reminds us that life on earth is a wait, not very long, until the Lord comes again. Blessed is that servant whom his master finds when he returns doing so. I tell you that he will put him in charge of all his property. The readings exhort us to live as pilgrims, to be awake, because of faith and God’s promise, and also because of the account we will one day have to render.

The faith that guides our steps is the foundation of the things hoped for, as the Letter to the Hebrews expresses. By means of this theological virtue, the Christian acquires a firm guarantee of the Lord’s promises, and an anticipated possession of the divine gifts. Faith makes known to us with certainty two fundamental truths of human existence: that we are destined for Heaven, and that, therefore, everything else must be ordered and subordinated to this supreme end.

Abraham’s departure from his native land to go to the place God indicated to him, and then the exodus of Israel from the land of Egypt, are figures of the pilgrimage that the Christian makes in this world to reach the heavenly homeland. As happened to the ancient patriarchs, that faith can be subjected to harsh tests, as when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son. It is also demonstrated by the fact that all those who left Egypt, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, died without having taken possession of the promised land. They thus learned what it means to live as pilgrims in this world, as one who is passing through, in search of a homeland that is beyond their perishable existence.

We Christians know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Word who became man to show us the way to Heaven. Moreover, we have received the Holy Spirit as a pledge or guarantee of what we hope for. Therefore, we can go safely to meet the fulfillment of the promise, with greater certainty than those ancient fathers who, in faith, all of them died without having obtained the promises, but by seeing and greeting them from afar, and recognizing that they were pilgrims and strangers on earth. And we also have a greater responsibility. That is why Jesus exhorts us to be vigilant: because the enemy is always on the lookout, while love never sleeps. Get used to seeing God behind everything, St. Josemaría recommends, to know that He always awaits us, that He contemplates us and rightly demands that we follow Him with loyalty, without abandoning the place that corresponds to us in this world. We must walk with affectionate vigilance, with a sincere concern to fight, so as not to lose His divine company.

A few years ago, Pope Benedict XVI explained that, “for us Christians, eternal life indicates not only a life that lasts forever, but also a new quality of existence, fully immersed in the love of God, which frees us from evil and death and puts us in endless communion with all our brothers and sisters who share in the same Love. Eternity, therefore, can already be present at the centre of earthly and temporal life, when the soul, through grace, is united to God, its ultimate foundation. Everything passes, only God does not change. A psalm says: My flesh and my heart are consumed: Rock of my heart, my portion, God forever! (Ps 72 [73] 26). All Christians, called to holiness, are men and women who live firmly clinging to this Rock, their feet are on the ground, but their hearts are already in Heaven, the definitive dwelling place of God’s friends”.

A vigilant attitude. Examination of conscience.

IN THE Gospel of the Mass there are various variants of the need to live always prepared, watchful. All the more so the greater the gifts that God has given us and the tasks that he has entrusted to us.

One of the lessons of the Gospel is that these tasks are well performed when the servant does not lose sight of the fact that, at any moment, he can be called to account; therefore, when each moment is lived and configured for eternity. If a Christian forgets this reality, he will also lose sight of the content of his earthly work and of the holiness it requires. And, on the contrary, he will practice justice and all the other moral virtues better if he looks beyond the world, if he sets his eyes on the demands of eternal justice, which is not a mere idea, but the Risen Christ, whose glorious advent awaits the whole history of the world.

Among the warnings that the Lord gives us today, one sounds like this: keep your waists girded and the lamps light, and be like those who wait for their master when he returns from their nuptials, to open him instantly as soon as he comes and knocks. In the ancient world, loose garments were worn, which were girded with a belt to walk and carry out certain activities. This graphic image indicates that it is necessary to be prepared to undertake a job, to undertake a journey, to prepare to fight; it also indicates the attitude proper to those who watch or wait for the arrival of someone. When the Lord comes at the end of life, he must find us like this: in vigil, as those who live from day to day; serving out of love and committed to improving the realities of this world of ours, but without losing the supernatural meaning of life, the end to which everything must be directed.

We must make due value of earthly things-career, business, rest, … -without forgetting that nothing here below has absolute value, and that it must serve us to love God more, to serve men and women and to win Heaven.

Jesus “asks us to be attentive to perceive his presence, his advent, and warns us to wait for him with vigilance, since his coming cannot be planned or predicted, but will be sudden and unpredictable. Only those who are awake will not be taken by surprise. Do not let what happened in Noah’s time, when men ate and drink carelessly, and the flood caught them unawares, do not happen to you (cf. Mt 24:37-38). What the Lord wants us to understand with this recommendation is that we must not allow ourselves to be absorbed by material realities and concerns to the point of being trapped in them. We must live before the eyes of the Lord with the conviction that every day he can make himself present. If we live in this way, the world will be better.”

As one Father of the Church observes, “Our Lord willed that the last hour should be unknown to us, precisely so that we may always suspect that it is coming; in this way, not being able to foresee it, we may always be preparing for it.” In any case, a short time separates us from that definitive encounter with Christ, and each day that passes brings us closer to eternity. It may be this year, or the next, or many years from now. … It will almost always seem to us that life has passed very quickly. The Lord will come in the second or third watch…. And since we know neither the day nor the hour, for those who have lived with their backs turned to God it will come as something completely unexpected. Know this: if the owner of the house knew at what hour the thief was coming, he would not allow his house to be dug. You therefore be ready.

Saint Augustine reminds us that “the day will come for each one when each one will leave this world to be judged. Therefore every Christian must be vigilant, so that the coming of the Lord does not find him unprepared. And that final day will find him unprepared if he is caught unprepared on the last day of his life”. A concrete sign that we are vigilant is to make a thorough daily examination of conscience, according to our Father’s advice: daily examination is the friend that awakens us when the laxity of sleep overcomes us. It is the guarantee and tranquillity in our obligatory vigil. Let us go to him with courage.

The struggle in the small.

WE WILL be vigilant in love and far from lukewarmness and sin, if we remain faithful in the small things that fill the day. The small, the humble, what does not count in the eyes of men, dazzled only by the great, attracts the love of our Father God and opens in the human heart the great hope of the heavenly kingdom. That you pay attention to the small, that you be in the details,” our Founder insisted. “It is not obsession, it is not mania. It is affection, vigilant love, supernatural sense at all times, and charity. Always be faithful in small things, out of love, with rectitude of intention, without waiting on earth for a smile or a look of gratitude.

If we consider the smallness of each day in the examination of the night, we will easily find the signs that indicate the motives and the roots of possible missteps. Small things are the prelude to great things, and vigilant love feeds on what seems small; and he falls into the greatest temptation who neglects what he considers unimportant. Remember, son, that microbes are no less important than wild beasts. And you cultivate those errors, those mistakes-as microbes are cultivated in the laboratory-with your lack of humility, with your lack of prayer, with your lack of fulfillment of duty, with your lack of self-knowledge. … And then those foci infect the environment.

“You need a good daily examination of conscience, which leads you to concrete resolutions of improvement, because you feel true pain for your faults, your omissions and sins.

Moreover, small daily victories strengthen the inner life and awaken the soul to the divine. Attentive, therefore, to the care of the small. These occasions present themselves very frequently: to live the heroic minute when getting up in the morning or at the beginning and end of work; to dispense with that insubstantial reading that can entangle the soul or is, at least, a waste of time and, always, an opportunity to overcome curiosity; to take care of mortification in meals; sobriety in social gatherings, in loquacity… .

If we are faithful in the small things we will keep girded, watchful, alert to the Lord who comes. The Lord wants us to be holy, and He does not ask for the impossible. That is why He has put holiness within our reach.

We will achieve holiness if we strive to take advantage of and put into practice what we hear in the Short Circle; if we try to finish our work well, with delicacy; if we prepare our talks and conversations responsibly, in order to bring good doctrine and the love of God to souls. And so in everything, in the small work of each moment, always facing God.

In this way, our life will be a joyful expectation of the definitive encounter with the Lord, while we eagerly carry out the task that our Father God has entrusted to us in the world. And at all times we will be accompanied by the smile of our Blessed Mother Mary.