Come, Lord Jesus
Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
In the old days before radar and mass communication, like radio and television, people never knew when dangerous storms and hurricanes were coming, they never had warnings about tornadoes. They were just out in their fields, conducting business in their cities, snuggled comfortably in their beds, when WHAM! They were caught unawares. Today we receive warnings maybe days in advance.
In the old days the Jews didn’t know the Messiah was coming. But they did expect him sooner or later, which is more notice then the Gentiles had. The Gentiles didn’t expect any Messiah at all. But for all, both Jews and Gentiles alike, Jesus the Messiah came. You and I know that he came, we know he is here right now. But being human, and busy about so many things, we can easily tend to forget. We need to be reminded from time to time. And so, our gospel comes as sort of a wake-up call.
Jesus in replying to a question put to him by the Pharisees about the coming of the reign of God says, “You cannot tell by careful watching when the reign of God will come. Neither is it a matter of reporting that it is ‘here’ or ‘there.’ The reign of God is already in your midst.”
We must remind ourselves of that fact every day, and often during the day. Christ is with us now, we know, spiritually, but the day will come when he will appear to us in the flesh. The exact day and moment will quite possibly happen when we are least expecting it, just like the people of olden days who seldom received advance notice about many happenings. “Come, Lord Jesus, but help us first to get ready for your coming.”
