To lie hidden, will be impossible

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” ― Mother Teresa.

(Gospel text: Mt 24:42-51)

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Stay awake!

For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.

Be sure of this:

if the master of the house

had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,

he would have stayed awake

and not let his house be broken into.

So too, you also must be prepared,

for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

"Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,

whom the master has put in charge of his household

to distribute to them their food at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.

Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.

But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is long delayed,'

and begins to beat his fellow servants,

and eat and drink with drunkards,

the servant's master will come on an unexpected day

and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely

and assign him a place with the hypocrites,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."

For 14 years I have earned my living as a financial auditor. My profession has helped me to grasp the mind set of being prepared, not just in a secular way but also in a spiritual way.

As I have gotten older and experienced the ebb and flow of life, namely births and deaths, I have wondered about people who die suddenly or unexpectedly.

Were they prepared? What if they were not?

When all is said and done, we need to be prepared for a whole host of events in our mortal lives, the greatest of which is our meeting with the Lord. There is much that we can do every moment of every day, but we will never know what enough preparation is, until it is too late. Matthew’s warning holds so much meaning on so many levels for so many of life’s challenges.