AT AN HOUR YOU DO T EXPECT

1 Cor 1,1-9; Ps 144; Mt 24,42-51
30 AUGUST
Time is not eternal. St. Paul teaches us that it has by now become brief. It became brief because the work to be performed, that is, our sanctification is so high and sublime as to require that no moment of it be wasted.

I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away. I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction (1Cor 7,29-35).

At this juncture of history, St. Paul himself exhorts us to dedicate ourselves to our sanctification with respect and fear. With respect, because sanctification is accomplished in the observance of the Law of Christ Jesus. With fear, because having passed the moment of history that has been assigned to us on earth, we will present ourselves before the Lord our God to be judged in relation to all our completed works, both good and bad. Fear is lived in faith that every Word of God is very pure truth.

So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work. Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labour in vain. But, even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with all of you. In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me (Phil 2,12-18).

But today all this ancient world of faith has been swept away. It no longer exists. In fact, it is by now a universal thought that eternal punishment is not fitting for God and this falsity is taught with great emphasis. If hell does not exist or, if it exists, it is empty, then the whole Word of Jesus loses its value, starting from the Sermon on the Mount. What is the use of sacrificing a life to virtue when vice produces the same fruits? If sin leads to Paradise, why must one obey the Gospel?

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

It is sufficient to insert only one falsehood in the preaching and the whole deposit of sound doctrine loses its value. Revelation is a multitude of truths and each of them gives strength to all the others. A single truth is denied and all others lose their light. But today everything is losing its light. Christ and the Church are by now without light.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, free the disciple of Jesus from all foolishness insipidity.