Daily Gospel Reflection – Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
October 24, 2023
Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Lk 12:35-38
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.
And should he come in the second or third watch
and find them prepared in this way,
blessed are those servants."
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the faithful servant who the master finds vigilant on his return from a wedding. He is calling us to be vigilant for the Second Coming.
Though Jesus came and fulfilled the expectations of his people, nevertheless we still wait. The liturgy states it clearly: “As we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” And in Eucharistic Prayer IV, we find, “As we await his coming in glory . . .” The creed says, “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”
In the Acts of the Apostles, the angel addresses the disciples as they stare into the heavens after the ascended Jesus. “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Paul’s letters are filled with a lively expectation that Jesus would soon return. Toward the very end of the New Testament—and hence of the entire biblical revelation—we read, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
And the Lord draws a forceful conclusion from the parable: “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
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