Commentary on the Gospel of
We are at the end of the liturgical year and tomorrow we are entering into the new liturgical year with the season of Advent. Today’s readings invite us to watch out our daily activities and pray constantly for the glorious coming of Jesus in our lives. To receive these blessings, the gospel of the day tells us how we should live our daily lives. We are surrounded by worldliness, its beatitudes and promises. Jesus reminds us that we are in the world but not of the world. We need to rise above the worldly ways and its deceptive benefits.
When the wait is very long, there is the risk of not being attentive and of not paying attention to the events of life: “the hearts become coarsened by debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life.” Today there are many distractions which render us insensitive and the new philosophies and ideas inculcate a perverted sense of life in us. Being pushed to a world away from truth and down to earth realities one can be blind to God and to humanity.
As the end times narration continues, Jesus speaks of two kinds of living. One is to live joyfully in the expectation of God’s Kingdom, so that it does not catch us unawares. The other one is the just opposite way of living with all the cares of life which lacks joy and peace. In order to face Christ who comes to meet us, we need to remain spiritually fit and be faithful to the tasks God has entrusted to us. We need to take care not to let ourselves down by careless living, senseless pursuing of pleasures and being overburdened by life’s anxieties. Jesus wants us to guard our life constantly against worldliness that weighs down our hearts and take us way from God’s ways. Watchful prayer makes us joyful in waiting and worthy at the return of the Lord.
