By Fr. Andrew Kelly
The believing community’s vocation is to wait and watch for the Lord’s return. After all, the community does often acclaim: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”
Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 25:14-30) is about the work the community does as it waits and watches. The Master has entrusted to the community the Master’s most valuable assets, namely the Gospel and the mission. The community will be strictly held accountable and rewarded as to how it lives the Gospel and the mission while it waits and watches for the Master’s return.
John P. Meier in his commentary writes:
“Being awake means being faithful to God’s instructions and acting upon them with all the energy we can muster, with all the abilities God has entrusted to us. Watching for the Lord does not mean self-centered idleness or pusillanimous inactivity during the period of delay. This ‘in-between time’ must be filled up and made meaningful by our deeds of love, as the final scene of judgement (vv.31-46) will make clear. How we act during this apparent ‘lull’ in salvation history will actually determine the denouement of that history.” (Matthew, New Testament Message, Volume 3, Liturgical Press, 1980).
(Father Andrew Kelly is pastor of St. Mary Parish in Mechanicsville.)
