Metaphors like “burning your boats” or “burning your bridges,” suggest a radical option with no turning back. Having your lamp alight is a gentler image, but still a good one, for meeting the challenge of life. “What shall be the outcome?” is the question posed in both Old and New Testament. Where is this world headed? And more personally, what of my own destiny in the life to come? About that day or hour no one knows. And just as well, for it would be difficult knowledge to cope with. But His message is to be ready to meet Him, whenever He comes.
The Lord comes to us in many ways, both to gift us and challenge us. Welcoming him is what really makes us Christians, sharing the spirit of His first followers who said “Maranatha” — “Our Lord, come!” We are invited to live our lives within an awareness of eternity, seeing this life as preparation for and building towards an endless life with God.
Ready for his Return?
Our vision of the last things should not sink us in pessimism or despair at our sinfulness. But the question should be asked: How ready are we? Our faith tells us that some generation in history will experience the second coming of Christ. Then a person may have but a moment to wonder: “Am I ready? Am I prepared? Even if ours is not the generation to see the second coming, still each of us must face our personal day of death. For some it comes unexpectedly, out of the blue, even perhaps at a young age. For others it will be fairly predictable and follow the more natural course of ageing and decline.
Regardless, there will be a time when each must ask the question: “Am I ready? Am I prepared? Meanwhile, we are faced with multiple choices to make each day which may seem insignificant; but they all add up pointing us in a particular direction, sometimes good, sometimes less so. Are our everyday decisions helping to make us ready? Are they making us prepared?
His Return and Reward
With the busy-ness of life it is easy to forget about the second coming of Christ. We prefer to ignore our mortality and put off our preparation for the death which we all must face. How do we prepare ourselves? How do we get ready? How will we be sure that the Lord recognizes us? What are the right choices to make during our day? The end of chapter 25 reads: “Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”
Although we do not know the day or the hour of the second coming of Christ, although we do not know the day or the hour of our own deaths, we have been told what staying awake entails. It seems that if we meet the response from the Lord: “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you”; it will be because of our foolishness and not because of a lack of mercy or justice on the part of the Lord. Shalom!!!
