19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Let me begin with a story which I read from the Inquirer last November 24, 2011. It was about a wife, Aurelia Matias who was searching for her husband Luis who had been missing for weeks in the streets of Manila. She waited for him but she did not just sit down and did nothing as she waited. Rather she looked for her husband placing a sheet of bond paper pinned in front and the back of her dress with the picture of her husband. She said, "I don't want to just see him again, but I want to serve him. I want to serve him still." Her waiting reveals her patience but above all the quality of her love for her husband. My dear friends, in the Gospel of Luke 12:32-48, Jesus said, "You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." These words of Jesus indicate that we are called to wait actively for Jesus. But why should we wait for Him? What is our reason for waiting? We know that Jesus is the Son of God. We believe that He came to save us from eternal damnation. We hope that He comes again to judge the living and the dead. He will come again to judge us all whether we go to hell or to heaven. Are these the reasons then why we should wait for Him? These actually sound boring. Well, if these are so, then we can wait passively for Him. We just continue doing what we are doing at present and if He comes, let Him do what He must do. But the second coming of Jesus is not just about the judgment day; the day He comes to tell us either we go to heaven or to hell. Rather, it is the day when Jesus who gave up His life  because of His love for us returns as He has promised. He returns for us because He loves us. He wants to share His love for us in all eternity.  In short, He comes as our lover. And if we also love Him, then we can wait for Him not passively but actively. We wait actively by practicing love to one another. And when He comes again, He will make perfect the love that is found in us. In other words, while we wait for Jesus, it is but proper to make ourselves busy in love. So that when He comes He cannot find bitterness, anger, jealousy, lust, etc. in our hearts but love. As a young priest, I need to double my time in doing this. Most often, I would think of my heartaches, failures, resentments, etc. which make me forget that I am called to love and for love. Many distractions come into my system that my prayers and pastoral services become mechanical rather than a labor or fruit of love. I know I do not have enough love while waiting for Jesus at this point of time. I am thereof afraid that I run out of love before Jesus comes again. There is a need to prepare myself. A lot of preparation is needed. I must learn to love unconditionally and the timer starts now. If there is then the best reason why we have to wait for Jesus even for a long time, (Aurelia has also taught us this), we must have that  love which makes the waiting worthwhile. Using the words of Aurelia, we can also say to others while waiting for Jesus,  "I don't want to just see him, but I want to serve him. I want to serve him still." Amen.