21ST THURSDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Gospel (Matthew 24:42-51) - THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

“Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” (Mt 24:42)

FIRST READING - 1 Thess 3:7-13

"May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all."

A reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians

⁷ Because of this, we have been reassured about you, brothers, in our every distress and affliction, through your faith. ⁸ For we now live, if you stand firm in the Lord.

^9 [a]What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you, for all the joy we feel on your account before our God? ¹⁰ Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in person and to remedy the deficiencies of your faith. ¹¹ Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, ¹² and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, ¹³ so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. [Amen.]

GOSPEL OF THE DAY - Mt 24:42-51

 ^"So too, you also must be prepared."

✠From the Gospel according to Matthew

^42 [a]Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. ⁴³ Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

^{[b] 45} “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time?^{[c] 46} Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. ⁴⁷ Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. ^48 [d]But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’ ⁴⁹ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, ⁵⁰ the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour ⁵¹ and will punish him severely^[e] and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

21ST THURSDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Gospel (Matthew 24:42-51)

THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

Dear People of God,

The Word of God in today's Gospel, God teaches His disciples and everyone the importance of being vigilant and ready to wait for the day of God's coming.

When God granted human beings life in this world, they had nothing—merely a zero—and were only servants of God. It is He who has entrusted possessions and wealth to humanity for them to manage. And God desires that each person becomes His faithful steward.

In today's Word of God, God teaches His disciples as well as everyone that: to become faithful stewards of God, everyone must be alert in all places and at all times; that is: in this earthly life, everyone must constantly carry out God's commandments, which is to fear God above all things and love others as themselves.

God always wants the best for people, so He came to earth to teach people how to live to please God the Father, so that God the Father can let them enjoy happiness in Heaven with Him. He said that only those who are faithful, loyal to God in all things and are alert and waiting, trying to do what God wants and loves, then the day God calls them out of the world will be a happy day for them, because they will enjoy happiness with God.

God always wants the best for people, so He came to earth to teach people how to live to please God the Father, so that God the Father can let them enjoy happiness in Heaven with Him. He said that only those who are faithful, loyal to God in all things and are alert and waiting, trying to do what God wants and loves, then the day God calls them out of the world will be a happy day for them, because they will enjoy happiness with God.

But if anyone rebels against God and does not do as He has commanded, woe to that person! He will be imprisoned in a place of painful torment alongside those who live hypocritically before God. God has given each person a heart and a righteous conscience. If everyone lives according to what God has commanded, they will not fall into the eternal fire of hell, a place of ultimate suffering.

Today's Word of God calls everyone to be awake and ready, awaiting the day of God at any moment, by obeying His commandments of love and placing absolute trust in the God of Love—so as never to betray Him or be unfaithful to Him.

Thanks be to God. Amen.