Saturday in the 34th Week of Ordinary Time, November 27, 2021

Luke 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.”

The Lord Jesus here concludes his teaching on the end of the world, his second coming, and the great judgment, admonishing his disciples to live a radically different way from other people: waiting patiently and alertly.

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life.”  This is more literally translated: “Pay attention lest at any time your hearts be loaded down with drunken dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of everyday life, and that day should befall you unexpectedly.”  Jesus warns us of three activities that will keep us from waiting as we should.  “Drunken dissipation” can be understood in the literal sense, meaning living in such a way that a person wastes his time, energy, and wealth chasing pleasure; and it can be understood spiritually as avoiding Mass and prayer but chasing the latest health fads, throwing oneself into one’s career, and accepting esoteric beliefs in place of Catholic doctrine.  “Drunkenness” means regular abuse of alcohol or other drugs as well as seeking other sensual pleasures.  “The worries of everyday life” means that we devote ourselves to our daily routine and to overcoming obstacles to doing this as they crop up and so  forget God and the eternal realities.

“And that day catch you by surprise like a trap.”  A trap is a trap only for the unwary.  It may threaten even those on the watch for it, but these will be able to jump away at the moment it snaps shut.  The unfaithful lurch about from one pleasure or distraction to the next and will experience the second coming as a trap in which they are suddenly caught.  They will strive to talk their way out of their confinement by saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?” (Matthew 25, 44).  But it will be too late for them.

“For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth.”  The Greek has “will come upon” rather than “will assault”.  That dread day will come upon the wicked as a day of wrath and, indeed the just will stand in awe.  But “if the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4, 18).  The day will come upon all who are left alive at the end of the world as well as upon all the dead, whose souls will rise with their bodies for judgment.   

“Be vigilant at all times.”  That is, not only should we stay awake, but we must also stay alert.  We do this through directing all of our actions to God’s will so that in whatever work he finds us, it will please him: “Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come he shall find working” (Matthew 24, 46).  In remaining vigilant we should consider how the Lord says that he will come as “a thief in the night” (cf. Revelation 16, 15).  That is, as though he is trying to catch us unaware.  Thus, we cannot nod even for a moment.  

“Pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”  The Greek has, “Pray always”.  On our own, we cannot hope to maintain the strict vigilance the Lord warns us to have, but with the help of God’s grace we can do all things.  We must continually ask for this grace and then cooperate with it, keeping in mind that the only thing that matters is heaven.  Let others say that “the journey is the main thing”.  We know that if we do not arrive our destination, heaven, the journey is without meaning.  The “tribulations” the Lord speaks of are the temptations of this life as well as persecutions.  The worst of the persecutions will take place shortly before the Lord comes again.  At that time we will “stand before the Son of Man”: “The Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the ancient of days: and they presented him before him. And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed. My spirit trembled; I, Daniel, was affrighted at these things” (Daniel 7:13–15).  The Prophet Daniel only saw the Son of Man as his Judge, but we know him as also our Redeemer.  Let us stay awake, then, in virtue and prayer, not dreading to see the Lord when he comes, but living in hope all the days that remain to us here.