It could happen at any time

You could die today.

I could die today.

(Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, be merciful to me – a sinner.)

Our Lord’s warnings in today’s Gospel (Matthew 24:42-51) are not just about the end of the world: the warnings apply also to the end of our individual lives, which could come suddenly and unexpectedly.

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.

May the Lord Jesus give us the grace of full repentance NOW.