When I was a child, my mother would always remind me to keep the house clean. This means doing house chores every day. One time, I asked her why we had to clean the house every day. Cannot we do it twice or just once a week instead? She would always say, "we should clean the house every day so that we are always ready to receive visitors anytime." I even insisted that we do not receive visitors often and they would not mind if the house was dirty, especially if they came unexpectedly. Despite these, I still did the house chores until it became a habit for me.
Jesus' invitation in the Gospel is to "stay awake" and be prepared for the coming of the Lord. I ask myself, "how can I always be prepared?" I realized how hard it is to prepare for a particular purpose. The invitation for me is to be ever ready, that is, to embrace change and be open to be transformed. To prepare oneself is not for a single purpose nor does it happen in a day at once. To prepare for the Lord is a daily invitation. It should transform us. My mom's asking me to clean the house daily is not only to prepare for visitors but for me to develop a habit of keeping things in order and neat. Inside the seminary, following the norms of the community is not only for me to survive the seminary life, but to prepare me for my future priestly ministry. Preparation and discipline help build character. Through them, I learn to do things out of love and with love, to do them not for the sake of simply doing it but because it is what I ought to do. As Christians, our preparation to see God face to face happens every day. Our being a Christian must be seen even in the ordinariness of our everyday life. It must be evident in our encounters with people and in our faith in action.
By: Sem. Paulo O. Magistrado
Today's Gospel
Matthew 24:42-51
Jesus said to his disciples:
"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."
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