Not tomorrow, but Now

by: Carmina Guerrero, Senior A

See Jesus speaks to his people.They ask him when the end of the world will be. Jesus answer not in direct and exact words but of sureness. He says that the end of time will surely happen but speaks not of an exact date. His people ask for the signs. He exclaims: 

"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues
from place to place;
and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky."

There is much more to happen, before judgment day comes. That is what Jesus means. But there is much deeper thought in this gospel than that.

Judge Jesus wants us to prepare ourselves for his coming. Whenever I go to mass, there is something that always gets to me. Its the part where we all recite: "Christ has died, Christ, has risen, Christ will come again." Ever since I was a little girl, I always wondered "When will he come again? He already died and he already rose...but when will he come again?" Only now that I realize it does not matter when he comes. He will come and we should all believe that. What matters however is being prepared for his arrival. But we should not be lazy one this task. We know that the Lord will come in the future, it doesn't mean that we only act in the future. We do not act tomorrow. We act now. 

Act In the former, i have mentioned that there is a need for all of us to be prepared in the coming of man. We should seize everyday and make it ours. We should take every opportunity and offer our prayers, works, joys and sufferings to the Lord. We should help as much needy as we can for the time being. We should be able to show others how Christlike we are in our own little ways. There are things we can do that will surely make Jesus smile up in heaven. Even the smallest of this, for as long as it came from the heart, it is done in goodness, and offered to the Lord, Jesus will surely be proud of us. I am glad to think that I've got a lot of things to do because I know I still can make up for my past mistakes. I wanna do more good things for the greater glory of the Lord.

We Filipinos usually have this "manyana" mentality, which means "mamaya na". We inherited this way of thinking back when the Spaniards conquered our country. We tend to procrastinate things. For example, this gospel. I bet most of us will submit on the due date, where we think "I can rush it naman eh, for as long as I pass something." But this way of thinking is actually wrong. We should always put our best foot forward in doing work. We should always be ready and punctual.

But the coming of man is no joke. It is no project with deadlines. It is no exam with make-up tests. The coming of man happens only once and we dont know the date. So the best thing to do is be ready for it. God will judge us for who we've become. If we've become good soldiers of Christ or not. We should be ready not on the day he comes...but now. We have to act now, before its too late. Not tomorrow, but now.