Gospel Reflection Aug 11 – Deacon Frank
Sunday, August 11
Ninteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 12: 32 – 48
Gospel:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have the servants recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.
And should he come in the second or third watch
and find them prepared in this way,
blessed are those servants.
Be sure of this:
if the master of the house had known the hour
when the thief was coming,
he would not have let his house be broken into.
You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect,
the Son of Man will come.”
Gospel Reflection:
El Paso, Dayton, Las Vegas, Columbine, Amish children, and so many other mass shootings in recent years — the world seems to have lost its reference point. In so many ways we just live through these tragedies. One shooting begins to run into the next and becomes nameless to us as we numb ourselves to all of it in order to simply cope. The flag nows flies at half mast seemingly perpetually.
This week’s Gospel is a continuation of last week’s. Refer back to Deacon Frank’s reflection from last week about the man who had plenty and planned for a cushy future not realizing that his life would be forfeited that very day. Installing and operating home security systems are meant to guard us when we don’t want or cannot be constantly vigilant. Security is an illusion. We cannot buy our security. Today’s Gospel passage is yet a further reminder that we must not be like that man in last week’s Gospel.
Jesus tells us today to be ready for when the Master comes. For all our efforts, there is no way we can know when or how the Master will call on us. So what is one to do? First, we must keep in mind that God loves us completely and perpetually in ways it is impossible for us to comprehend — regardless of who we are and what we have done. It is inconceivable for us to understand this — but there in lies the rub. While that projection of God’s love is automatic and constant, to receive that love, we must be in relationship with Him, to desire and work toward knowing Him by spending time with Him — in the Mass, in the Eucharist, in prayer — all the while living in relationship with Him. He will call on us, not as a thief in the night, but it is hoped as an old friend someone who knows us and we know Him. Are we ready?