TUESDAY of 29th WEEK, uneven numbered year “See that you have your belts done up and lamps lit.”
Throughout all of his public life, Jesus gives an example of service, he practices it with the poor, the sick, those who suffer. Day after day he trains and teaches his disciples, he praises them and confirms how he Himself didn’t come to be served but to serve : “keep your lamps lit.” Do not allow yourselves to be distracted by selfish , futile preoccupations, but be vigilant. We are the living stones of the Church, which is the Body we form. Each one of us is united in the service as in a living body from which different ministries are exerted from within. We are always as in the first days of the foundation of the Christian Community. The Holy Spirit brings alive the heart of Christians so that the Church roots itself solidly in God. Today, by the grace of God, we are ’responsible’ of the Church. So we need to double our prayers so that the Holy Spirit does his work amongst us. We come together to celebrate the Eucharist so that the Church may receive life. And so the community lives at the rhythm of the Heart of God.
“Be like people waiting for their master to return from their wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as she comes and knocks.”
Jesus shows the relationship that exists between this vigilance, this perseverance in the service of God and our neighbour, and happiness in eternal life. This theme of the encounter always comes back in Jesus’ teachings. Benoit 16 drew our attention to it in his Encyclical on the virtue of Hope, the fact that God will give justice to each one of us as a factor of hope for the one who, in this life, is going through a difficult time, persecuted for justice. Each one of us is a unique being for our God- we are his beloved children. He created us for this eternal happiness when He will fulfil us all the time by replying to this need of Love that He placed within us. He will never let us down, his gifts can spread out to all needs and He watches over us like a Father, a Brother, a Spouse. We know quite well that earthly life, when it comes down to it, is not very easy, but the eternal life that is proposed to us is
a promise and goes beyond anything we can imagine , it is the Triumph of Love, that is given , received and shared.
“Blessed are those servants who when the master arrives are found ready and awake. In truth I tell you he will do up his belt, sit them down at table and wait on them.It may be in the second watch that he comes, or in the third, but blessed are those servants if he finds them ready.”
It is out of fidelity to the Holy Spirit that Communities have been turned away from their source. Tired people had begun ’to rest’ outside the only rest which is God Himself. We need to carry our community in the prayer of the Church and offer up our life so it may live : ’ We ask you, Lord, to listen to the prayer of your people and to grant us always to accomplish worship fit to give you Glory.’ The worship of Love we give to God is for his Glory and for the salvation of the world. Openness to the world, to every person of good goes without saying, provided that we are solidly rooted in the Heart of Jesus. Right from the beginning, the founders of the Church had rooted the community of the Church in the mystery of Jesus. The community, desired by the Holy Spirit, cannot come out of its origins. Nourished by the Body and Blood of Jesus, by His Word, it wants to do God’s Will. It spreads throughout the world with its Joy, with concern for the poor, whose life is enlightened by the Word of God, which is at the Heart of the Church.