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Gospel Reading for August 28, 2025 – Matthew 24: 42-51
ON THE SAFE SIDE
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.”
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To stay awake while awaiting the Lord’s coming doesn’t mean not doing anything in life and just waiting for him to come because we think that this way, we will be ON THE SAFE SIDE. This is what happened to the servant in Matthew 25: 14-30 who, instead of investing like the other servants the one bag of silver entrusted to him by their master, buried it in the ground and waited for the master’s return. The master says in verses 29-30: “To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
To stay awake is to live our life to the fullest, the way Jesus lived when he was on earth. He became man, therefore, we can follow the way he lived, the way he used his gifts not for himself but for others, the way he showed compassion by extending help to those in need, the way he understood sinners and helped them change their ways, and so on and so forth.
If we live our lives this way, the Lord can come ANY TIME! No worries!
Lord Jesus, help us live our lives to the fullest!
