Listen to the words of Saint Monica at the end of her earthly life. John of the Cross, “we will be judged on love alone.” Why does the Lord keep us in the dark? To spur us on to practice virtue and seek perfection, yes, but perhaps also to inspire in us a greater desire for His coming. For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone … Show me thy face, let thy voice sound in my ears: for thy voice is sweet, and thy face is beautiful” (Cant 2:10-11, 14). Behold, he stands behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices!” (Cant 2:8-9).Īnd this is the voice of the Lord, who comes “like a thief,” peering in through her window in the dead of night: “Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come. She it is who cries out with such wild joy in the Canticle of Canticles: “The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills. This, in fact, is the difference between the anxious fear of the servant, striving for perfection because he is afraid that his Lord will catch him in some fault and reject him when He comes, and the longing of the Bride for her Bridegroom, who seeks to make herself pure and spotless for her Beloved-not because she fears rejection, but because her love for Him spurs her on to nothing less. Therefore, the Lord reminds us again today of the urgent need not only to stay awake and keep watch “with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12), but to remain in His love (Jn 15:9), dressed in the spotless white garment of salvation, ready for the summons to the wedding feast! We cannot enter eternal life if we are not clothed in charity. This garment represents nothing other than charity, that garment which every Christian is to put on over all his other virtues and good works, which binds them all together. John: “Blessed is the one who watches and keeps his clothes ready.” Recall the parable we heard last week about the man who comes to the marriage feast without his wedding garment. Let us consider one small detail, easily overlooked, from the Lord’s revelation to St. That thou has this day, and every day of thy life:īut something, perhaps, is missing from this sober interpretation. In the same vein, a traditional Catholic prayer worthy of daily meditation reminds us: Neither do you, no matter our age, our health, our plans for the future. “Time flies keep death before your eyes.” As a wise old priest I know told me not long ago, “I don’t have any more time to waste.” Neither do I. This is true, and profitable to remember. Therefore, in order that they might be diligent, not only at that time, but continuously, throughout their lives … God caused them not to know the day or hour.” For … if men knew when they were most likely to die, at that time only would they seek to repent, and they would make a show of diligence around that hour. One possible answer, proposed by the great Scripture commentator Cornelius a Lapide, is so “that the uncertainty may be a keen and never-failing stimulus to us in the practice of every virtue. “Christ, therefore, compares Himself to a thief, not as regards the act of stealing, but as regards silence and secrecy” (Cornelius a Lapide).īut why does the Lord will to keep us in suspense? Why will “neither the day nor the hour” be revealed until the Son of Man appears (Mt 25:13)? Why will the rightful King of Heaven and Earth return at His Second Coming to claim His kingdom “like a thief” rather than the conqueror He Is? Jerome adds, “The Lord wished to set down an uncertain end … so that man would always be awaiting it.” “Stay awake! For at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (Mt 24:42,44). At the end of the world he will come to all generally likewise, he comes to each man at his own end, namely in death … and he wished both to be uncertain.” St. Augustine says, “The Lord comes in two ways. It should surprise us that our Shepherd now tells us He is coming “like a thief.” Indeed, the whole point is to surprise us. But Our Lord, the Good Shepherd, comes so that His sheep “might have life and have it more abundantly.” He “lays down his life for the sheep” (v. He comes in the dead of night while the hired men are sleeping they leave the sheep and run away at his approach (v. The thief of souls, after all, is the Devil, who climbs into the sheepfold “to steal and slaughter and destroy” (Jn 10:10). How striking, that Our Blessed Lord now compares Himself to a thief! Let us take care to understand him rightly. “Blessed is the one who watches and keeps his clothes ready, so that he may not go naked and people see him exposed” (Rev 16:15).Īnd again: “If you are not watchful, I will come like a thief, and you will never know at what hour I will come upon you” (Rev 3:3). “Behold, I am coming like a thief,” says the Lord to St. Mary’s Parish, Eugene, OR on the feast of St. This reflection was given at Morning Prayer at St.
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