Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Come, Lord Jesus

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 11.27.22 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Friends, today’s Gospel reminds us to be prepared
as we await the Lord’s coming again.

I don’t think it is the least bit accidental that when Paul wrote back to the community at Thessaloniki
(the earliest Christian document we have),
his major motif was the end of the world as we know it
and the longing for Christ to come to remake the cosmos.

When Paul speaks in that text of Christ arriving on the clouds
and the Christians going up to meet him in the air,
he is not predicting a great escape from the world of matter;
rather, he is envisioning a welcome committee of believers
moving out to escort into the world its new King.

The entire Bible ends on a note not so much of triumph and completion as longing and expectation:
“Come, Lord Jesus.”
From the very beginning of the Christian dispensation, followers of the risen Jesus have been waiting.
Paul, Augustine, Chrysostom, Agnes, Thomas Aquinas, Clare, Francis, John Henry Newman,
and Simone Weil have all waited for the second coming
and have hence all been Advent people.

During this season, let us join them,
turning our eyes and hearts upward and praying,
“Come, Lord Jesus.”

[MurphsLaw]

+++Jesus said to his disciples:
"As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be at the coming of the
Son of Man.
In those days before the flood,
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage,
up to the day that Noah entered the ark.
They did not know until the flood
came and carried them all away.
So will it be also at the coming of
the Son of Man.
Two men will be out in the field;
one will be taken,
and one will be left.
Two women will be grinding at the mill;
one will be taken,
and one will be left.
Therefore, stay awake!
For you do not know on which day
your Lord will come.
Be sure of this:
if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the
thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect,
the Son of Man will come."+++