SUNDAY GOSPEL LECTIO DIVINA

Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival

In keeping the faith, there is a great deal of waiting involved. We hold vigils to prove our faithfulness as we wait for the Lord to act, for the Lord to return. I’m sorry, but I can’t help but ponder, what if we are wrong? What if Jesus isn’t coming back, and what if a life of faith ends up being all in vain? Blaise Pascal, a philosopher and mathematician during the Enlightenment, and a Christian, asked the same question. His conclusion is known as Pascal’s Wager, which states:

“ Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.”

Fans of sports teams could wait an entire lifetime for their team to win a championship and never see it happen. Was their hope all in vain? I would say no, of course not. As we wait, we learn what it means to be faithful, hopeful, and patient. We learn how to live with integrity. At the end of our lives, being vigilant in waiting for the Lord will make us into virtuous people because of the very nature of vigilance. God is vigilant in waiting for us to turn to him. By being vigilant as we wait for him, as we wait for anything good, we exhibit one of his qualities.

It is difficult to live for a place we know little about. What is heaven like? We know in heaven we will be in God’s presence. But what is His presence like? Many people have shared a wide range of experiences where they claimed they were touched by God, or heard His voice. How do we know when God is touching us, speaking to us, giving us glimpses of heaven? We know by having a pure heart, free of sin and selfish desires. When we quiet all of the false promises we tell ourselves, we then can more clearly hear and see the beauty of the one true promise which is eternal life with Christ in heaven.