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Gospel: Matthew 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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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“Stay awake!” the Lord says.
This idea of staying awake – of being watchful, alert – first surfaces in the Old Testament.
Physically, it applied to Israel defending itself from foreign armies. As the LORD says through the prophet Isaiah, “I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, by day and by night they shall never be silent.”
Imagine soldiers pacing back and forth, keeping an eye out for an invasion. It was their job to stay awake and protect their city.
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But it was every person’s responsibility within the city walls to protect their heart. This is a person’s most valuable possession in God’s eyes. As we read in the Book of Proverbs, “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.”
Jesus drives this point home in today’s Gospel. “If the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, then he would have stayed awake.”
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It’s Satan’s desire to damage us spiritually; to pollute our hearts, replacing our thoughts of God with the things of this world.
The three easiest ways to defend ourselves – to protect our hearts – are through our eyes, our ears, and our mouth. We must be sensitive about what we see, what we listen to, and what we say.
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How aware am I of my need to stay awake – to defend my heart, and by extension my faith?
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“You do not know on which day your Lord will come,” Jesus says.
So, stay awake. Be watchful and ready.
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Image credits: (1) Bible.com (2) Wikipedia, Jerusalem (3) PictureQuotes.com