Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 7:18-25a; Luke 12:54-59)
“Red sky in the morning: sailors, take warning.” In the gospel today Jesus exhorts the people to prepare for the coming storm. Of course, he is not talking about the weather, but about judgment day which comes for most people sooner than expected.
When he mentions the need to settle with our opponent, Jesus is again telling us to prepare for judgment. We should remember that if our case goes to trial, God will be both our opponent and our judge. It’d be better, Jesus warns, that we reconcile with God now or He will easily convict us of wrong-doing.
It may be hard for some of us who attend daily mass or, at least, read the biblical texts used at mass to identify ourselves in this reading. We might have noticed that Jesus is addressing himself to the crowds and not to his disciples. Yet all of us, no doubt, find ourselves at times at odds with what we know to be true and good. Jesus then is urging us as well to recognize our selfishness and to ask forgiveness for the times that we have allowed it to override our good judgment.
