Friday, November 25, 2022

Neither inaction nor hyper action

WORD 2day: Saturday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 26, 2022: Revelation 22:1-7; Luke 21: 34-36

Behold I am coming soon! At times it does annoy when we hear people go hysteric about this statement. It is not a statement to make one panic, but a gentle reminder as to how one should live one's daily life.  St. Paul understood this well and instructed the thessalonians: "For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness" (1 Thess 5:2,4).

This only means that neither inaction nor hyper action is expected of us; neither carousing nor drowsiness! It is not a call to live our life on pins and needles, anxious about the next moment; nor is it a call to live our life in mourning and bewailing for the lost moments. The call is simply to make the best of this moment and live the 'here and now' to the full, conscious and loving. That is the sense that the Gospel presents us: be vigilant at all times! 

Neither inaction, which is the product of lamentation of the past, nor hyper action which is a frenetic preparation for an unknown future at the cost of the present, would help us says the Word today. The secret is to live our lives as children of the light, calm and composed, but awake and vigilant! Every end leads to a new beginning, provided we are awake and aware. As we end this liturgical year, we begin the new year, yet another opportunity to journey, through time and space, towards fullness we are called to.