The readings last Sunday remind us that our life on earth is a short wait for the Lord’s return. Jesus urges us to be ready like the servants in the parable awaiting their Master’s return.

How do we make sure we are ready? By living our life on earth with God and Our Lady, living the Ten Commandments, praying every day, for example the Holy Rosary, going to Confession regularly and living a moral and upright life. It is important also to gain Plenary Indulgences which are part of the treasury of the Church. We can gain one each day and offer it for the Holy Souls in purgatory for example.  You may also consider joining in the Rosary before Sunday Mass, receiving the Eucharist, praying for the Pope’s intentions and going to Confession within several days. This way you will at least receive a Plenary Indulgence each week. We are told in the Scriptures, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Above all, we show our love for God by meeting Him in the Holy Mass. The strange thing in the parable is that when the master returns, it is he the master who feeds his servants, not the servants who feed him. Everything is reversed.

When we come to Mass, we are like those servants waiting for Jesus, our Master. We come to thank and praise Him and then the role is reversed: Jesus feeds us with Himself in the Eucharist. We receive grace of the sacraments however, according to our dispositions. When we receive Holy Communion with great faith, humility and love we receive more than others who receive Him without those correct dispositions.

In the second reading we see that it is faith which guides our footsteps. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. There is nothing more certain than faith.  We have been made for Heaven, so all else should be ordered and subordinated to this supreme end. That Jesus wants us to reach this end is proved by the abundance of supernatural means which He provides, His word and sacraments, the opportunity to attend Eucharistic Adoration outside Mass and the gift of His Mother, to be our Spiritual Mother who has great love for each of us.

The Church encourages us to think of the future and to reflect on our life’s choices. It teaches about the Four Last Things. These are:

1.     * Death. The separation of the soul from the body, marking the end of earthly life. The time of meriting is now ended.

2.    *  Judgement. Immediately after death each person faces the judgement of God. This is called the Particular Judgement and following this, our fate is fixed for eternity. There will be a Final Judgement at the end of the world, but this won’t affect the outcome of the Particular Judgement of each soul.

3.     * Heaven. Our ultimate goal, where we experience eternal and complete happiness, immersed in the Divine Will for ever.

4.     * Hell. That state of eternal separation from God for those who die in the state of mortal sin. There have been many great sinners who repented and became holy, but there are many others who never repent and end up eternally separated from God.

5. Jesus is the judge of the living and the dead. He is all powerful and He is also Love. Justice is part of love. Any good father will always correct and chastise their children when they do wrong.  The love or our earthly mother and father is only a pale reflection of God’s Love. He is infinitely patient with us, and no one is a hopeless case or a lost cause for God. The Lord awaits our sincere conversion and a more generous correspondence to His Will. Our hope is intimately related to vigilance, which depends to a large extent on love. For those who prefer to live with their backs to God, He will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. We must be vigilant in love because we will one day be judged in love and whether we kept the Ten Commandments of love. St Therese of Lisieux was a Carmelite Nun in Normandy France. She discovered the “elevator” to holiness when she read St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (Chapter 13). She realized that her vocation was to love at every moment. She would do the smallest tasks for Jesus with great love. In Normandy they have bitter winters and the Sisters would wear heavy mantles to keep them warm. Often though they would strew them about the Chapel. But Therese would go and gently fold each of the mantles and carefully put them in the seat of the respective sister. Nobody ever knew who did this. She did many other things for the sisters with great love. Her “little way” is now well known throughout the Church. She is not only a saint but a doctor of the Church. Love sums up the Commandments and the scriptures. Let’s set our hearts firmly on Heaven, do everything without grumbling and with great love. All of us have the potential to become saints too and our common vocation is to holiness. Praise be Jesus Christ, now and forever!