Homily
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time B2
17 November 2024
St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village
AMDG
How do I go to bed?
I'm really terrible at it. I can't think of anybody worse. I can't remember the last time I got ready for bed in a thoughtful way. I usually complete my prayers much earlier in the day, as early as possible. I usually limp home, after having worked as hard as possible, seeking some comfort and entertainment to cope with another day of exhaustion and survival. Then I pass out, until I'm jolted by an alarm as early as possible the next day.
It's not a recipe for eternal life!
At the penultimate weekend of our liturgical year, it's of enormous importance for us to focus on how we end our days. For in the new order inaugurated by the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, the end is the beginning. How we die determines exactly how we will live. So how we go to bed is how we will wake up the next day.
You know this to be true. So do I, but I'd like to ignore it. The end of our liturgical year, and our focus on the apocalypse and end times, however, remind us powerfully that it does no good to pretend that we will live forever. It does no good to put off til tomorrow what must be done today. It does no good to ignore the reality that we are what we eat, that our character and destiny is the sum of our actions, and that we live only as we die.
Christ couldn't have taught us more clearly, could he, by word and example, that only those who know what they are dying for will live forever. The altar then, which is both a tomb and a bed, is the center of our faith, and our constant rehearsal and preparation for how things will be forever. If we have died with Christ, and our life is now vertical, not horizontal, hidden with Christ in God, so we are confident we shall reign and live with Him, through Him and in Him forever!
This confidence is only ours if we know how to go to bed well! I've never liked the vigil Mass on Saturday, for I'm a morning person not a night person, or at least I like to think I am.
