Tad Brain Power

 THE THIRTY THIRD ORDINARY SUNDAY OF THE YEAR B!

Today is the second last Sunday of the liturgical year. Next Sunday, we will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. So, as we come to the end of the liturgical year, the Church focuses our attention on the last things. On this Sunday, the Scripture Readings traditionally speak about “the end of the world,” “the end of time,” “the final coming of Jesus” and our ultimate future. This is the mystery of faith we profess in the Mass: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

Today’s readings bring us stark reminders of life’s limits. We are going to die, and our world is going to end. When the latter will happen, even Jesus in His humanity did not know, though we can form a rough but unreliable estimate of our own life span. As the years pass, our bodies give us increasing hints that death will come to us at any time, perhaps even today.

Death is inevitable, and we can't escape death. When it is time, it is time. There is nothing we can do about it. Every single soul has to taste death. The reality of death is certain. The truth is, none of us know its day and time. But when our final day comes, we can't negotiate any extension. This story will give insight that we can not change our fate. What is going to happen will happen.

One day, death encountered a man and told him that today is your last day.

The man replied, " But I am not ready!"

Death said: Your name is at the top of my to-do list for today.

The man said, "Then, before you take me along, let us sit together and have one Last Cup of Coffee.

Death said: Of course.

The man offered a Cup of Coffee to Death. The coffee was laced with some sleeping pills. Death drank the coffee, and soon, it was fast asleep.

The man took Death's to-do list, wiped his name from the top, and placed it at the bottom of the page.

When Death woke up, it said: "You have treated me so kindly and with full of Love today. I would like to reciprocate you by starting my today's work from the names at the bottom of my list." It was written in man's fate that he has to go eventually with death.

A funeral director who developed his own personal style of letter writing. Before he would sign his name at the end of the letter, he would always close with “eventually yours.” There is no doubt about it. We all will be eventually God’s. We don't know the date and time of our passing away but we are sure and certain that we have to leave this world one day and wait for the judgements and rewards on the basis of our lifestyle.

In the month of November, the feasts of our Church remind us that this world is passing: We must remember where we are going and what we must do to get there. On the first day of this month, we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints. This feast holds a special place in our heart because it reminds us of the goal of our human life. We are called to share in the eternal life of God, to participate in the divine life of the Holy Trinity, to experience joy in the fulfillment of the deepest desires of our hearts. On the next day, the Church commemorates all the souls of the faithful departed on All Souls Day. This is an instructive and helpful reminder that even though we aim for Heaven, nearly all of us will experience further purification after our lives on this earth end.

Throughout this month, the readings have continued to emphasize these themes: that we will one day die, we will experience the judgment of God, and the actions of our lives will determine our experience of eternity. If we have repented and sought to return to God, we will, finally, be blessed with the vision of his glory. If we turned away from him or sought to satisfy our own self-desires, then we will be allowed to experience the joyless absence of God for eternity.

Today’s readings are no exception. They warn of great tribulation, of the destruction of the universe, and the judgment of all humanity. The Lord tells us to learn from the fig tree: when you see the signs of what is coming, prepare yourselves.

As we ponder the end of our lives, we must remember that we are all called to be holy, to be saints. We are called to turn back to God in this world, to follow the path of divine life. This is the road of the wise. Daniel says, “the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament.”

The Church further reminds us to “be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to stand before the Son of Man.” It reminds us of the parable of the virgins and the lamps, awaiting their master’s return from the wedding. Those who prepared themselves were welcomed into the feast, but those who were not were cast aside. In the parable of the wedding garment, we hear that those who enter the wedding feast must be clothed in a wedding garment. When we ponder these parables together, we see that we must prepare ourselves for the wedding feast–Heaven–as best we can.

To prepare ourselves for this moment, we must ensure we are not strangers to our Lord. We must repent daily of anything that leads us away from him. Even better than this, we must come to greet him face-to-face in the greatest of sacraments: the Holy Eucharist. When we attend the Sacrifice of the Mass, we relive the Crucifixion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord. As he offers himself to the father on the Cross, we offer ourselves to him so that he might lift us up too. Through the power of the Church, we mystically join at the moment when he redeemed humanity. Then, as we receive him in the Eucharist, we receive a foretaste of the banquet of Heaven and the divine life of God.

When we contemplate the last things: death, judgment, Heaven, and hell, we can sometimes fall into hopelessness or into a cycle of anxiety regarding our salvation. This is not what the Church desires for us. If it were, she would not remind us of the great glory that we are to receive, nor would she remind us constantly of the mercy of God. But we also must not fall into carelessness or presumption, so she reminds us of the consequences of our actions or inaction. As we pray, let us ask the blessings of the Almighty God that we may remain always vigilant, and seek out the Lord in all that we do, so that we will have the strength to stand before him at the end of our days.