Week 21 Thursday (Year 1)

Readings: 1 Thessalonians 3.7-13; Psalm 89/90; Matthew 24.42-51

If we try to impose this kind of attentiveness and perseverance on ourselves from outside, it will be well-nigh impossible. How could anyone, by willpower alone, maintain the kind of constant and alert readiness which Jesus demands of us in the gospel? Especially when the hours begin to drag, when the one expected is delayed, when tiredness sets in ...

If is only possible if it comes from within, in the way that people who are in love with each other do not need to be told to keep each other in mind. Where there is love, there will be watchfulness, attention, readiness, and we will be constantly looking out for the beloved. Then we will not mind the troubles and sorrows that accompany our watching, as Paul says in the first reading, but will be able to breathe again, looking for the arrival of the beloved. He or she will fill our hearts and minds. Our service of him or her, of his and hers, will be an easy yoke to carry, a burden that is light.

We are to practise in the meantime, practise loving, loving those in our care, and even loving the whole human race (remember that aspect of being in love with one, being in love with all?). And that is what holiness is, Paul concludes, to be strong in faith and generous in love. It is not any kind of forced righteousness but a life that flows from those gifts of faith and love. It means living then in freedom and with joy even as we stay disciplined, awake, alert and ready for the arrival of the Son of Man, our 'King of Love'.