Stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
For those of us who await his coming this should not be a threat. It is rather a call to be attentive. It is a call to live if life such that if Jesus returns at any moment he will find welcome in our hearts.
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.
In those periods where we aren't practicing the specifically Christian external observances of our faith do we still live in the awareness of the nearness of Christ? We can and we should. If we do not maintain this awareness we become lazy and even abusive. We impose of those around us, concerned mostly with our own needs and wants.
The call is to stay awake. Paul reminds us that the time is now.
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed (see Romans 13:11).
We can't just listen to the word and call it waiting. We can't just passively take what our neighbors are willing to give. We must actively go out to welcome the word, like the wise maidens, with our lamps lit by the oil of the Holy Spirit (see Matthew 25:1-13).
As we "wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" we must count on the one who will keep us "firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." We can truly count on him. He has promised and he is faithful. To this end he enriches us with discourse and knowledge and spiritual gifts and with the fellowship of the Church. To truly be waiting to welcome him, we must take full advantage of all the blessings he provides.
Generation after generation praises your works
and proclaims your might.
They speak of the splendor of your glorious majesty
and tell of your wondrous works.
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