Mathew 24: 42-59 (Thursday, August 30, 2007)

Christians should always be ready because they do not know the time Jesus will come. Today’s gospel reminded me of something that happened prior to the great Jubilee year. There was supposedly a secret from the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Fatima apparition that they would be three days of darkness. These three days of darkness were predicted to be some time around 1997. To survive the three days of darkness, you needed to burn candles for the three days. People went purchasing a lot of candles. My family had a different attitude to the whole event. We did not purchase any candle. This was our simple belief – during these three days of darkness, God will shine his light on the righteous people; and for the unrighteous people, even if they should light their candles, God will blow them out and they will experience the darkness. As Christian people, we do not have to wait for dates when the world will come to an end for us to live righteously. No one knows when God is going to come or call us individually for judgment. Our Christian motto should be “always ready.”

We have been given so much freedom during this time of our exile on earth. We should use our freedom to make right choices and not choices that will lead to our damnation. Do not live in an ungodly manner because you have this freedom, you do not know when you would be called to give an account of how you lived your life.

Prayer:
Lord, help us always to be faithful to you. May you find us worthy when you invite us to give account of how we spent our lives in this world.