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Thursday of the Twenty-first week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day
Saint Paschasius Radbertus (?-c.849), Benedictine monk
Commentary on Saint Matthew’s gospel, 11, 24 ; PL 120, 799 (trans. ©Friends of Henry Ashworth, 1981)

“Be prepared”

“Watch, for you do not know the day nor the hour.” Like many other scriptural texts, this admonition is addressed to all of us, though it is formulated in such a way that it would seem to concern only Christ's immediate audience. We can all apply it to ourselves because the Last Day and the end of the world will come for each of us on the day we depart this present life. This means we must make sure we die in the state in which we wish to appear on the Day of Judgment. Bearing this in mind each of us should guard against being led astray and failing to keep watch, otherwise the day of the Lord's return may take us unawares. If the last day of our life finds us unprepared, then we shall be unprepared on that day also.

'With the single exception of sin, anxiety is the greatest evil that can happen to a soul. Just as sedition and internal disorder bring turmoil to a state and make it helpless to resist the foreign invader. So also if our heart is inwardly troubled and disquieted it loses both the strength necessary to retain the virtues it acquired and the means to resist the temptations of the enemy. And Satan then uses his utmost efforts to fit in those troubled waters.'

St. Francis de Sales