33rd Sunday of the Year: Be prepared, for we do not know about tomorrow

Study:  Recall a couple of times in your life – when you were prepared and when you were caught off guard.  How did if feel?  What was the outcome?

Pray:  Do you have unfinished business in your life?  Take your challenges to prayer and ask the Lord for wisdom and courage.

Serve:  Is there a broken or wounded relationship in your life?  Perhaps you might make the first move to bring healing and reconciliation to the situation.

Mass Readings – 33rd Sunday of the Year

The first reading and the Gospel today are direct and to the point: there will be hardship and distress.  Tribulation is part of the journey.  Get ready!

And yet we can sometimes get caught in the (mistaken) sentiment that because we follow Jesus Christ everything is suppose to be sunshine and daisies.  On the contrary – our faith puts struggle front and center, reminding us that we are called to be ready and prepared for the unexpected.  Because just in case you were hoping for some secret sign from the Bible when the world will end, Jesus offers one of my all-time favorite lines of Sacred Scripture:

“But of that day or hour, no one knows,
neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”  (Mark 13:32)

No one knows the hour….this is a very big deal.  Remember these points:

• Difficulty, hardship, tribulation, and suffering are part of life.
• The unexpected happens!  Deal with it.
• And we do not know the hour when our lives will be over…

So how do we live?  The answer is simple – TODAY we speak and act so that if the Lord called us right now we would be ready.  TODAY we say:

• “I’m sorry.”
• “I forgive you.”
• “I love you.”
• “Can I help you?”
• “Can you help me?”

We live our lives one day at a time – we can’t go back and we can’t go forward – it is only in the present moment that we can do and say.  Thus, if we stay shackled to the past we can’t live today, and if we keep putting off what is needed we are wasting the moment we have.  TODAY is our opportunity to address any unfinished business, to right wrongs and tell the people in our lives how we feel about them.  In other words, today we squeeze out every opportunity we have  to love the Lord and one another…

…for of that day or hour, no one knows.

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Catholic Inspiration Archives

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Note: This post was first published on November 9, 2015.