What Would You Do If You Knew You Were Going To Die Tomorrow?
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Go out to the world and tell the Good News.”Ps. 117
Thank God we do not know when the day will come for us to leave this world, for many would suffer greatly watching their days slip away, and we do not know the consequences such knowledge would bring. But God wants us to always live ready to depart from this world, without needing to know that we will die next Sunday in order to prepare well. He wants us to live always prepared for that moment, for it could be this Sunday, or the next, or the one after that.
Christ came to give us that new life in which we are ready to enter the Kingdom of God, because the best life we can live in this world is a life in the grace of God — and not just so we may leave this life well, but so that we may live it each day. Eternal life does not begin after death; it is the Christian, divine life that we must choose here and now, so that in the end we will not have to hear: I do not know you; you who do evil.
To be ready for eternal salvation, we must already be living as those saved by Christ — in communion with Him, being among His sheep who listen to Him and follow Him each day, seeking to please Him, having learned to trust Him more than ourselves. This is what it means to belong to Him and to be on the path of life.
If in this life one rejected Him and preferred other paths of the world and of sin, learning to love them, it is impossible to suddenly hate what one always loved, and love what one always rejected. In that hour of Truth, there will be no deceitful lips able to say “I love You” if in reality it is not so, for what your soul truly loves will be laid bare.
We still have time to set our hearts on God, to cultivate love for God so that we will desire to go to Him, because at that moment we will not be able to change the level we have reached in our spiritual life. This is why the five wise virgins could not give their oil to the five foolish ones in the Gospel (Mt 25) – love, faith, and trust are untransferable; they are something cultivated and grown day by day, like the mustard seed that grows unnoticed until it bears fruit.
The main goal of our life on this earth is to reach eternal life; without it, everything will have been useless, built on sand, destined to collapse. How do we pour oil into our lives so that we can arrive at that final day with our lamps lit? How do we plant and cultivate the good seed of the Kingdom of God within us? How do we grow spiritually? How do we nourish the soul? We must receive the words God has revealed to give us His Life.
God tells us clearly in Romans 10: the Word of God is the light that guides us and nourishes our souls. Listening to the Church’s preaching and putting it into practice, receiving the Bread of Life, the sacraments… all of this nourishes faith and the divine life within us, so that we may begin to live it now — without waiting for death, for then it would be too late.
Readings of the Week
Sunday: Is 66:18–21 / Ps 117:1, 2 (Mk 16:15) / Heb 12:5–7, 11–13 / Lk 13:22–30
Monday: 1 Thes 1:1–5, 8–10 / Ps 149:1–2, 3–4, 5–6 & 9 / Mt 23:13–22
Tuesday: 1 Thes 2:1–8 / Ps 138:1–3, 4–6 / Mt 23:23–26
Wednesday: 1 Thes 2:9–13 / Ps 138:7–8, 9–10, 11–12 / Mt 23:27–32
Thursday: 1 Thes 3:7–13 / Ps 127:1–2, 4–5 / Mt 24:42–51
Friday: 1 Thes 4:1–8 (429) / Ps 96:1–2, 5–6, 10, 11–12 / Mk 6:17–29
Saturday: 1 Thes 4:9–11 / Ps 97:1, 7–8, 9 / Mt 25:14–30
Next Sunday: Sir 3:17–18, 20, 28–29 / Ps 15:2–3, 3–4, 4–5 (1) / Heb 12:18–19, 22–24 / Lk 14:1, 7–14
Observances for the Week
Sunday: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Monday: St. Louis; St. Joseph Calasanz, Priest
Wednesday: St. Monica
Thursday: St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Next Sunday: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
