Gospel : Luke 21 : 25 – 36
Year C
The end of a liturgical year directs our attention to Your “coming”, Lord, to Your return at the end of the world. The same message is proposed to us in preparation for the feast of Christmas. Your birth among us, at Bethlehem, is not a simple recollection. Like all the celebrations of the Liturgical year, it is a “memorial”, in the biblical sense of the word : it is an event which started long ago, 2000 years ago, and which continues to-day, and which will continue until Your final coming, at the end of time.
Unceasingly You come into our lives: I stand at the door and knock. If someone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to live with him (Apoc.3:20). Do we know how to hear this voice which calls us? Do we know how to open our door, Lord? Teach us to welcome You into us and to live with You.
Be watchful …. stay awake!
How often You urged us to be vigilant! The time of Advent makes us hear your calls with more insistence. Grant us attentive hearts. Open our eyes to recognise You when You come …. when You come through the events of our days, when You come through the people we meet ….
If You come, it is always to bring life, peace, love …. Too often You offer these gifts to a world of violence and death, a world beset by the storms and cares of life. That is how we are to-day! We want to be near You ….. and it is the law of the jungle! Come, Lord, to bring us peace, to restore our confidence.
Stand erect and hold your heads high: for your liberation is near at hand.
You repeat these words, Lord Jesus, especially through Your Eucharist. Through It, You unceasingly share Your life, Your joy with us …. You give us the Spirit of light and strength in our difficulties. May You be blessed, Jesus!
Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!
