The coming Christ

Fr Paul reads from Luke’s Gospel (21: 34-36) in which Jesus tells his disciples not to be weighed down by the cares of life but rather to stay alert and pray.

In the Gospel today, Fr Paul says, we hear about three things and all relate to how important it is to spread the good news. The three things are sobriety, prayer and ‘the trap’.

Taking a moment and reflecting on sobriety: what is meant here is the concentration and perseverance of spreading the Good News. It is saying not to get caught up by other things in our world. It is about avoiding distractions that come our way.

The second thing we focus on is prayer, which must be a permanent part of being a follower of Jesus.  Jesus, himself, expressed and witnessed to the importance of prayer in his own life and so it must be part of ours.

Fr Paul says we then come to what’s called ‘the trap’, which relates to the coming of the Lord. It will be like a trap that suddenly snaps closed.  In other words, the coming of the Son will happen suddenly so don’t take things for granted.

As we spread the Good News in our times here and now we always need to be mindful of these three things – sobriety, prayer and the trap.  Fr Paul invites us to think on these three things as we go about our day today.