The time to prepare is now…..Are your “spiritual bags” packed?

Today we hear at Holy Mass from the Gospel of St Luke…..People were admiring the beauty of the Temple and Jesus addresses them….“All that you see here–the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down”…....How easy we get caught up in the “things of this world”…Believing them to be permanent……The only thing that lasts forever is our soul…The soul is eternal and is destined for one of two places - Heaven or Hell…Think about that….The next time you see a big crowd, say at a football game or in Time Square in New York City…Each and every person you see among the huge crowd will end up in one of two places - Heaven or Hell…….We all claim to want to go to heaven - But the road to heaven begins in the here and now…If we do not want the things of God now, what makes us think we will want them in heaven…….In Luke’s Gospel today at Mass, Jesus tells the people that the Kingdom of God will come when we least expect it - In a Flash!……No one knows the day or the hour…The time to prepare is now…..Are your “spiritual bags” packed?….What does that mean?…Are you living in a state of grace?…Are you free from mortal sin?…..These questions may make us feel uncomfortable but they need to be addressed in a sober manner…Because we do not know when the Son of Man will return………But make no mistake, that day will one day be upon us…Let’s make sure we are ready!

“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.”

It was a Tuesday, September 11, 2001…A beautiful Fall day and I was at work six blocks from the World Trade Center in New York City. Just a “another day”, but soon I realized it was not just “another day”….My office was on the 32nd floor facing the Trade Center…The first plane hit the buildings as me and my buddy watched from his office window. We thought a horrible accident took place…After the second plane hit, my building shook violently and the fire from the impact could be seen very clearly from my window…We all knew that was not an accident…Why bring this up?….That day was like any other work day, no different from how today began in fact…People got up, got on buses and trains and went to work and by 9:00am, thousands of people were dead!….Many of the people who died that day worked on Wall Street, as I did….Many of them had wonderful lives….They lived in beautiful towns, their kids went to private schools, they took wonderful vacations two times a year…That all ended in an instant!…And I watched it all unfold right before my eyes!….Were these men and women ready to face the Lord?…..In the first reading today from St John, he describes the end times when Christ is about to return…..”Another angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, “Use your sickle and reap the harvest, for the time to reap has come, because the earth’s harvest is fully ripe.” So the one who was sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested”……Tuesday, September 11, 2001 as we all know was not the “end of times” that St John wrote about, however it was the end for thousand of people who lost their lives…And their end came upon them in an instant!….....”That was not supposed to happen", many people said - But guess what? - It did!……It was just another Tuesday…A beautiful Fall day in September…But as it turned out it was not just “another day”……And in a flash everything changed!….Were the men and women who died that day ready to face the Lord?

“Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life”

Today in Luke’s Gospel from Mass, Jesus is reminding us that everything we see, no matter how beautiful, will eventually be no more…The only thing that is eternal is our soul…“All that you see here–the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down”…..So the question is - Where are we focusing our efforts and attention?…Do we prioritize the state of our soul?…….Jesus goes on to say these words to the crowd….“See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them"…….There is only “one way off the island”…..Jesus Christ is The Way, The Truth & The Life….And when “push comes to shove”, as it did on a beautiful Fall September day known in the history books as “9-11”, will we be ready?…..The time to prepare is now…..Are your “spiritual bags” packed?