Gospel for October 20, 2009, Tuesday
Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. | 10/20/2009 12:14 AM
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29th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Rom 5:12, 15ab, 17–19, 20–21
Gospel: Lk 12:35–38
Jesus said to his disciples, “Be ready, dressed for service, and keep your lamps lit, like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding. As soon as he comes and knocks, they will open to him. Happy are those servants whom the master finds wide-awake when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will put on an apron and have them sit at table and he will wait on them. Happy are those servants if he finds them awake when he comes at midnight or daybreak!”
Commentary
At the start of today’s gospel, a different image breaks in: if the householder had known at what time the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have let his house be broken into. The one, who is to come, is not only a promise but also a threat: a threat to our autonomy; a threat to the comfortable compromises by which we order our lives. We are the householders; we think we are in control. The day of God’s coming overturns all this.
The Son of Man will come at an hour we do not expect. So much for the cosy images of death as a swift escalator up to the pearly gates of heaven. Christ will come, not only at the time we least expect him, but in a form we least expect. The one, who will come in glory, has already been here, many times and in many shapes: hungry and thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick and in prison. He has been here many times and judges us by how we received Him. May we be alert for Christ’s coming and recognize Him in every man, woman and child, and especially in those most in need of our help.
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