Image-i-nations

The words of Jesus in the gospel come to us in different forms –
explanations, recommendations, invitations, warnings.
Each one requires our attention, but some of them do so with a greater intensity.

What Jesus tells us in today’s text has an imperative tone.
The words suggest an urgency as they reach us personally (Matthew 24:42-44):

“Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come…
So you must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Some people could be tempted to move on to… the next text, more comforting, perhaps…
Yet, these words have a meaning that we cannot ignore –
the coming pf the Master, the return of the Lord… at the end of the world?
This is one of the accepted meanings, but it is not the only one.

Just as obvious, there is the coming of the Master… when our personal life will come to an end.
The words of Jesus are NOT a threat.
They should not suggest a perspective that causes fear or anxiety.

On the contrary, it is the realization of all that we have lived, all that we have become.
This is the moment when, at long last, we will have reached our destination – we will have come ‘home’.
The home prepared for us by Jesus (John 14:2), we will be there, at long last!

We need only to follow him, day after day.
We must watch not to take paths that would not lead to where he invites us.

To watch, to be careful, to be aware, to stay the course, to keep the focus on the destination.
And most important, never forgetting that he walks at our side from day to day…

Source: Image: https://www.scripture-images.com/bible-verse/gw/matthew-24-42-gw.php