DAILY GOSPEL REFLECTION. “BE VIGILANT AT ALL TIMES” (Lk 21:34–36).

Gospel of Friday, 34th week in Ordinary Time
Lk 21:34–36

Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Gospel Commentary from the Navarre Bible, Commentary to the Gospel of St. Luke (with permission)

34-36 At the end of his discourse Jesus emphasizes that every Christian needs to be vigilant: we do not know the day nor the hour in which he will ask us to render an account of our lives.
- Therefore, we must at all times be trying to do God’s will, so that death, whenever it comes, will find us ready.
  - For those who act in this way, sudden death never takes them by surprise. As St Paul recommends: “You are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief” (1 Thess 5:4).
- Vigilance consists in making a constant effort not to be attached to the things of this world (the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life: cf. Jn 2:16) and in being assiduous in prayer, which keeps us close to God. If we live in this way, the day we die will be a day of joy and not of terror, for with God’s help our vigilance will mean that our souls are ready to receive the visit of the Lord, they are in the state of grace: in meeting Christ we will not be meeting a judge who will find us guilty: instead he will embrace us and lead us into the house of his Father to remain there forever.
  - “Does your soul not burn with the desire to make your Father-God happy when he has to judge you?” (St. Josemaria, The Way, 746).

Dear brethren in Christ, vigilance and prayer are the necessary attitudes to await the coming of the Lord. Jesus Christ announces to us a message of hope on each page of the Gospel . Christ himself is our only hope. He is the full guarantee to achieve the promised goods. He shows us what must be the main object of our hope: the treasure of the incorruptible inheritance, the supreme happiness of God’s eternal possession. Saint Basil writes:
“The only reason left for you to glory, oh man, and the only reason for hope is to put to death all that is yours and to seek the future life in Christ” (Homily 20 on humility).
But hope is not possible, as Saint Augustine says, if there is no love (On faith, hope and charity 117). And in the evening of our life, as Saint John of the Cross says, we will be examined on love.

Let us then ask God’s grace to begin again each day so that our hearts moved by love for God remain vigilant, finding ways to make our Beloved God happy in the little things of each day.

A great day ahead and God bless! Fr. Rolly Arjonillo.

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