Jesus will come back in glory to take to heaven those who are his own.  They love like him as they look ahead to his coming.  They thus get a taste of heaven’s joy. 

We have to look ahead to our Savior Jesus Christ’s coming back in glory. The liturgy we hold today reminds us of this.

And not of few of those who look ahead to the Savior’s coming back see it to be about to take place. There are those also who think they know more than the angels and the Son. For they point out the date and time when he will come.

Then, there are those, too, who get upset and panic. And others think that the Lord will come very soon. So, they just stay idle, turn into busybodies, and do no work.

To look ahead to the Lord’s coming in these ways is one extreme to avoid. But we have to avoid also the other extreme: not to look ahead at all to the day of the Lord that will come like a thief at night. And today’s second reading and gospel address this problem.

No, we are not to lack interest in the Lord’s coming or not to care about it. Though he delays and may come back only “after a long time,” yet he will keep his word, for sure.

Look ahead, watch, stay sober 

Yes, our Master will come back and settle accounts with us his servants. For he has trusted us with his own mission, handed it over to us. He said to us:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, then, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

This commission asks us, of course, to be enterprising. We are not just to keep or conserve; rather, we should be creative. Jesus does not want us to obsess about being secure, but to take risk to change the world.

That is to say, we should in creative ways trade with what Christ has handed over to us. For there should be more Christians who will embody the Good News.

Yes, to change the world means to see to it that the Good News and our lives are forged to be one. And we know what makes us to be of the Good News and of Jesus and leads others to know it. It is our love for one another.

And we learn how to love, since Jesus, our father, our mother and our all (SV.EN V:537), has loved us first. In the same way, yes, we learn how to love due to our fathers’ and our mothers’ love for us. Our mothers’ love most of all, the worthy wife’s love in deeds. For as Pope Francis says, from our mothers in general have we received the faith. It is the women who know how to wait, to risk beyond limit.

Come back, Lord Jesus! How long? Pity your servants. And fill us with your love and let us look ahead to your joy and taste it, especially as we recall your sacrifice of love, of which you make a sacrament in a creative way (SV.EN XI:131). 

19 November 2023
33rd Sunday in O.T. (A)
Prov 31, 10-13. 19-20. 30-31; 1 Thes 5, 1-6; Mt 25, 14-30