HOMILY FOR SATURDAY OF THE 34TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE II
HOMILY THEME: EXHORTATION TO BE VIGILANT…..” Watch at all times and pray”
BY: Fr. Antoni CAROL i Hostench
Today, last day of the Ordinary Time, Jesus clearly warns us about the fate of our pass through life. Should we stubbornly insist on living imbued by the immediacy of our worldly cares, the last day of our earthly existence will come upon us so suddenly that the very blindness of our own greediness will prevent us from recognizing God himself, who will come (do you remember we are just passers-by around here?) to take us towards the divine intimacy of His Infinite Love. Something like what happens to a spoiled child: he is so entertained by “his” toys, that he ends up by forgetting his parents’ tenderness and his friends’ company. And when he finally realizes what he has done, he disconsolately wails because of his unexpected loneliness.
The antidote Jesus offers us is equally clear: «Watch, therefore, at all times and pray» (Lk 21:36). To watch and to pray… The same advise He gave his apostles the night He was betrayed. The prayer has an admirable prophecy component, often forgotten when preaching, that is, to switch from the mere “seeing” to “watching” the quotidian in its deepest and crudest reality. As Evagrius Ponticus wrote, «Just as sight is the most worthy of the senses, so also is prayer the most divine of the virtues». The classics of spirituality name it “supernatural vision”, i.e. to look through God's eyes. Or what amounts to the same, to know the Truth: about God, about the world, about oneself. The prophets were not only those who “preceded what was about to happen”, but also those who knew how to interpret their present time in its just measurement, scope and density. The end result: they knew, with God’s help, how to redress history.
So often we complaint about our world situation. —Where shall all this lead us to? Today, is the last day of the Ordinary Time, it is also a day of definite resolutions. Maybe it is about time that someone may make up his mind and give up his present drunkenness while starting to work for a better future. —Would you like this someone to be you? Then, cheer up! And may God bless you!
Fr. Antoni CAROL i Hostench (Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain)
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