“Stay awake!”…Why?…..”For you do not know on which day your Lord will come”

Today at Holy Mass in the Gospel of St Matthew, the message is VERY clear…..“Stay awake!”…Why?…..”For you do not know on which day your Lord will come”……Again, why must we be so vigilant of that day?…Because on the day of the Lord’s return - He will judge the world - That means he will judge each of us!…..I believe a driving reason why people do not think about the importance of “Staying Awake” is - We no longer need a “savior”…Let me re-phrase that…For many - We need God only when “things go bad” in our life…And as soon as they normalize - We forget God again and go about our business and “do our thing”…..Americans no longer fear hell because the devil has convinced our people that there is no such thing as sin…..”You do you”….”It’s all good”….”I am a good person”…These are the phrases and slogans we hear today that are promoted in the culture…But I can assure you - These are not the standards that God will judge the world…Even many who “know” that Christ will return…They “block out” of their mind, rationalizing away bad choices to avoid changing their life….This is why St Matthew warns us today…..“Stay awake!”…..If we were to step back and contemplate the patience of God the Father, we would all fall on our knees in thanksgiving!!!!….The patience of God is beyond human understanding….With that said…Time does run out…Always be prepared - Have your “house in order” - Living in the state of grace is not an option……Jesus Christ will one day return….."Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand”……When that day comes….The current -  ”You do You” - slogan of today will not carry too much weight.

“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?”

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, every Baptized Catholic must go to a Sacramental Confession at least once in a calendar year (Canon 989 and CCC 1457). Why is going to confession important?…Because if we do not “clear away” our sins (most especially our mortal sins), even if we go to Mass and receive the Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist will not effectively animate our life…In fact, if we receive the Blessed Sacrament outside of the state of grace, that is a mortal sin as defined by the Church and Scripture….Now….Let’s look at some recent statistics…..According to the Pew Research Center……23% of US Catholics go to confession at least once a year……47% of Catholics say they never go to confession…..Among weekly Mass attendees, 53% go to confession at least once a year……Let’s break these statistics down further….Roughly 29% of U.S. Catholics go to Mass at least once a week………And approximately 20% of the American population is Catholic…..Let’s now draw some conclusions based upon our data….One in five Americans are Catholic….Of that twenty percent of America, roughly only one in three attend Mass on Sunday and of this group, half go to confession once a year…..That reality should terrify us!!!…How can we possible be ready for the Lord’s return looking at these numbers?….Not to mention, when a person lives outside the state of grace - They are blinded by sin and their will is not fortified to resist sin…That is also noted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 405 & CCC 406)….To live outside of grace, a person is at a HUGE disadvantage in life and based upon this data, most of America, even Baptized Catholics live in this disadvantage state….So today the message of the Gospel of St Matthew SHOULD serve as a warning….“Stay awake!”…Why?…..”For you do not know on which day your Lord will come”

“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.”

The statistics I noted above, I did not make up!…With that said, what is the Church doing about addressing this?…As a father of five children, if my children were in mortal danger, I would “drop everything” and do whatever I could to save them…Is this the mentality among the “remnant” today?….Think about for a moment the lengthens by which Jesus Christ went out of his way to save us from our sins - Do we view humanity, as disillusioned as it currently is in the same way?…..”As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation”

“Stay awake!”…Why?…..”For you do not know on which day your Lord will come”…..JMJ