Keep Your Eyes Open
Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Have you ever noticed how careful animals are? They are most always on the watch. Sometimes they miscalculate or become overly engrossed in what they are doing and get caught off guard, but by and large they keep an eye out for anyone or anything that might be a danger to them. They live longer that way.
Jesus tells us to be prepared for whatever might happen. “Expect the unexpected,” is how the advice goes. I doubt he wants us to become paranoid – expect the worse around every corner and behind every bush - but we are not to conduct ourselves like a drunk crossing the highway. We are to keep prepared for temptation towards sin and the possibility of finding ourselves in eternity at the blink of an eye. What will we do when either happens?
Maybe no one is ever sure what they will do when an imagined thing actually happens, but we would be wise to prepare. Temptation is bound to come; the devil will never let a soul elude his grasp without a struggle. And death we all know is even more certain than its partner in crime — taxes. Prayer and self-denial help prepare us for temptation, loving our neighbors prepares us for a good life in the hereafter.
“Let your belts be fastened around your waists,” Jesus says, “and your lamps be burning ready.” That’s his way of warning us that temptation and death are on the way. Let your soul keep an eye out for them.
