Here and Now with Francis 8/8/16 (Christ, vigilance, expectation, time, eternity)
May the Virgin Mary help us to be persons and communities not focused on the present, or, worse, the nostalgic about the past, but turned towards the future of God, towards the encounter with him, our life and our hope.
From the angelus
Earlier, the pope had commented the Gospel reading of the day (Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, C) concerning three parables on vigilance (Lk, 12:32-48).
"The first,” he explained, “is the parable of the servants who wait during the night for the return of the master. ‘Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival’ (v. 37). It is the blessedness of waiting with faith for the Lord, of getting ready in an attitude of service. He becomes present every day, knocking on the door of our heart. And blessed will be those who open it because they will have a great reward: for the Lord himself will be the servant of his servants; in the great feast of his Kingdom, he will himself serve them.
“With this parable, set at night, Jesus promises life as a vigil of diligent waiting, which is a prelude to the bright day of eternity. To access it one has to be ready, alert and committed to the service of others, in the comforting perspective that ‘Beyond’ it will not be us who serve God, but he himself will welcome us to his table. Come to think of it, this happens already today every time we meet the Lord in prayer, or in serving the poor, especially in the Eucharist, where he prepares a feast to feed us with his Word and Body.”
“Jesus,” the pope said, “today reminds us that the expectation of eternal beatitude does not dispense us from our responsibility to work for a more just and more habitable world. Indeed, it is precisely this, our hope of possessing the Kingdom in eternity, which encourages us to work towards improving the conditions of life on earth, especially those of our weakest brothers and sisters. [link]
