Good morning good people,
May the Lord bless you with peace and goodness in the Holy Spirit. It is 28th August 2025.
We reflect on 1 Thessalonians 3:7-13 and the Gospel of Matthew 24:42-51. We celebrate the memorial of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor, who taught us, “What you give will certainly be transformed; but eternal life that will come your way.” (Sermon 390). “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”
“Are we abounding in love or abandoned by love?”
The readings of the day remind us about the coming of the Lord. There are three comings of the Lord: His coming into one’s personal life, His coming at the end of our earthly journey, and His second coming at the end of the world. We must remain alert and watchful, because any of these comings may take place at any moment.
Throughout this week, we have reflected on being encountered people, called to live with sincerity and honesty, without duplicity or double standards. As encountered people, we are challenged to offer a counterculture that brings out Gospel values.
Living counterculturally is one of the ways of doing God’s will—by aligning ourselves to the pace and rhythm of God, by loving people and creation genuinely, without conditions or expectations, and by letting God into our lives, believing that we are heirs to His blessings.
The responsorial Psalm acclaims: “Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy.”
The Gospel invites us: “Stay awake, for you cannot know the day your Lord is coming.” To be awake does not mean to sit idle, but to actively work for the Lord, for the welfare of humanity and the good of the community. As St. Paul boldly declared: “Anyone who will not work should not eat.”
No one knows the hour of the Lord’s coming, and so we are called to live each day alert and watchful, doing the good that we can, avoiding evil, and resisting sin at every occasion.
May the Lord help us to face this day with hope, not with fear; with blessings, not with burdens.
May God bless you.