NINETEENTH SUNDAY (Luke 12:35-40)

There’s a book by  Frank Kendig  and  Richard Hutton called  Life Spans, or How Long Things Last. The book reveals some interesting facts. For example, we discover that that the average life of  baseball shoes worn by the major league star is only  two months.

Even more surprising is the average life of a  soldier’s boots in  peacetime  is 15 months, while in  wartime  it drops to only 3 months.

While the life span of certain things are shorter than we might think, the life span of other things are quite long. For example, a  beer can  left behind by some campers on a mountain will still be there  80 years from now. A  leather shoe  left behind at the same site will be there  50 years from now.

But whatever it is – a beer can or a rock – authors Kendig and Hutton assure us that it will eventually disappear. For,  nothing lasts forever.

What is true of things is also true of  human beings. Even people who proclaimed, “I don’t intend to die” are now no more. We too  will eventually disappear. None of us will live forever in this world. And that’s precisely the point that Jesus makes in today’s Gospel. That is why he warns us: “Light your lamps... You also must be prepared, for an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

Although Jesus is referring here to his Second coming, theologians assure us that his words may be taken in  two senses.

In the  narrow sense  they refer to the  end of the world. In the  wider sense,  however, they refer to the  end of our life. And it is for the end of our life – or  our death  –that we must be especially prepared. All we know is that it will happen.  We will not live forever.

When I was studying philosophy at the  Berchmans College, the Jesuit College of Philosophy in Cebu City, there was a cancer patient at the  Perpetual Succour Hospital. He was a member of the Free Masons, and would not have anything to do with priests. But  Fr. Joe Cruz  managed to visit him regularly, because he spoke Spanish with the patient. First they talked about the weather and so on. When they became friends, Fr. Cruz started talking about returning to the faith. Finally, Fr. Cruz brought up the question of  confession. The sick man kept saying  “Yes, maybe later.”  He kept on postponing.

Then Fr. Cruz was  awakened at  3:00  dawn by a strange scratching sound, like that of  a rat on the roof. He immediately thought of the dying man in the hospital. Early that morning, Father rushed to the hospital. He was told that  the patient died at about  3:00  dawn.

Sigmund Freud,  a famous  Austrian neurologist, had a favorite story that touches on this point of preparedness. The story concerns  a sailor,  who was  shipwrecked and washed ashore on a South Pacific island. He was greeted enthusiastically by the natives. They clapped and sang, hoisting him on their shoulders, into their village. They  sat him on a golden throne.

Little by little, the sailor learned what was going on. The islanders had a custom of occasionally making a man king for a year. During his kingship, he could order his subjects  to do anything within reason, and  they would obey him without question.

The sailor was delighted that he had been chosen to be the king. He couldn’t believe his good fortune.

Then one day he began to wonder what happened to a king, when his year of kingship ended. That’s when his excitement and enthusiasm came to an abrupt end.

He discovered that at the end of his kingship, he would be banished to a barren island,  called  King’s Island.  There he would be left  to starve to death  as  a sacrifice to the gods.

After the sailor recovered from his shock, he slowly began to cook up a plan. As king, he ordered the  carpenters  of the island to build  a fleet of small boats. When the boats were ready, he ordered the  farmers  of the island to  dig up fruit trees and plants,  put them in the boats, and  transplant them  on King’s Island. Finally, he ordered the  stone-masons  to  build a house on King’s Island.

That story makes a good illustration of what Jesus is telling us in today’s Gospel. Similarly, Jesus in another part of the Gospel, tells us to provide… an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.” He is telling us to do what the sailor did.

Today’s Gospel invites us to ask ourselves how well we are preparing  ourselves for that day, when like the sailor in the story, our life on this planet will come to an end.

It invites us to ask ourselves, “If we were to die tonight, how ready would we be to face God?” And if our answer to that question leaves something to be desired, then we can be sure that  Jesus is speaking to us in a special way through today’s Gospel.

He is saying: “Be like servants, who wait for their master’s return... You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”