REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 29TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 24TH OCTOBER 2023

REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 29TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 24TH OCTOBER 2023

Rom.5:12,15b, 17-19, 20b-21; Ps.40; Luke 12:35-38

Girded Loins; Burning Lamps

Our Christian faith tells us that Jesus will come a second time; this time, he is coming to the judge the world and pay everyone according to his or her deeds. The time of his coming is not certain; what is certain is that he will come. In the Gospel reading of today, Jesus tells us that we must never forget this fact about him. The concealing of the time of his coming is for us to live lives of readiness.

When a child performs excellently well at the end of the term's examination, he/she hurries home and anticipates the return of the parents to break the good news. When the reverse is the case, the child will even want to go to bed before the parents return. In asking us to anticipate his second coming, Jesus is invariably telling us to live good lives. When we live uprightly, we will anticipate him with Joy but when we live in disarray, we deceive ourselves that he will delay.

To live uprightly is not just about avoiding sin like a plaque. Jesus says we must let our loins be girded and our lamps burning. To gird ones loins means to put in check our natural sinful inclinations. Someone once said that everyone has at least a bad habit that he or she is struggling with. To gird your loins means that you must not give up in the struggle no matter how often you fall or how difficult it is to rise. Therefore, to gird ones loins will amount to frequenting the sacraments of reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist.

Second, we must let our lamps burn continuously. This means to continue to use our gifts to positively impact the world. Some many factors will contribute to this: we must not trade with our gifts, we must not become arrogant because of them, we must not make an idol of ourselves when people are flocking around us, we must not think that we are holier than others or more deserving of the grace of God, and so on. With these, we will be able overcome the winds that seek to blow off burning lamps.

The reward of watchfulness is to be served by Christ himself. When we serve Christ in this world, he will serve us in the world to come. Before his ascension Jesus said that he is going to prepare a place for us for in his Father’s house there are many rooms. This service of prepared rooms is for those who have served him here on earth.

See, we are like students in an examination hall except that we are not told when we will be asked to stop writing. Let us write the much and the best we can now so that whenever we hear “pens up”, we will joyfully handover our answer booklet to the examiner.