Daily Gospel Reflection – Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Daily Gospel Reflection – Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Daily Gospel Reflection – Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time 

November 27, 2021 

Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time 

Gospel: Lk 21:34-36 

Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.” 

Source: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 

Bishop Robert Barron 

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus urges us to watch and pray as we await his coming again. In one sense, Christianity is a religion of fulfillment (the Lord has come), but in another sense, it is a religion of waiting, for we expect the Second Coming of Jesus in the fullness of his power. 

We wait and watch and keep vigil. And this is difficult. But what we all know is that great things take time. For example, when a woman becomes pregnant, she has to wait nine long months before the baby is ready. 

“How long does this analysis take?” a woman once asked Carl Jung. “Just as long as it takes,” came the answer. Gestation, growth, healing—during any of these processes, the very worst thing one can do is to pick at it, to force it, to make it operate according to our private timetables. 

That’s why Jesus calls us to “be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength . . . to stand before the Son of Man.”