Surprise Visit
Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.” Mt 24:37-44
1sr SUNDAY of ADVENT Cycle A
It is always warm in the Philippines. That is why we keep our windows open most of the times. With windows open we see a lot of people. Seeing them we often invite them inside our homes and even share with our food with them. This explains why we, Filipinos, are known to be quite hospitable compared to people in colder countries.
But much as we want our guests to feel at home, we also want them to give advanced notice of their visit so that we could prepare their rooms, food and even their trip itinerary. There was a family in the middle of supper was disturbed by knocking on the door. To the surprise of all there were relatives coming from a long exhausting trip from the province. While the rest of the family welcomed the unexpected guests, the mother went to kitchen to check if there was food enough. There was only a bowl of instant noodles. Fortunately after praying for a miracle, the bowl of noodles did not go empty that night even after their guests had been fed.
We are hospitable but we want to know ahead of time whom and how many are we welcoming into our homes. However, unlike us God had always been coming for surprise visits at unknown times. The people had not known in advance when He came to Noah. The floods came and carried them all away – except for Noah, his wife and three sons. The same thing happened at Sodom and Gomorrah – only Lot’s family survived tha rain of fire. Through time God kept on coming surprising people and the result was only few people were saved every time.
Now if God won’t change His ways then man must change his. In short man must be prepared always because at any time God may come.
How? Isaiah advised us by “walking in the light of the Lord” Is 2:1-5. St Paul through Romans warned us “to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions of the flesh” Rom 13:11-14. Before putting on the red and green colors of Christmas, let us focus on Violet – the color of Advent that remind us of what Isaiah and Paul tell us today – “walking in the light of the Lord” and “to putting on the Lord Jesus Christ while making no provisions of the flesh”.
In USA there is an area known as tornado valley because every year it gets a lot of twisters. And so the houses there have underground bunkers where people store food, water, medicines, fuel, batteries and clothes. Unlike typhoons that takes days to arrive, tornadoes come suddenly in minutes.
Like these people have we enough stock of good deeds for the Lord’s unexpected and sudden visits? Jesus warned us that the coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah. At that last time God will again surprise us. Will we be prepared at the hour we do not expect?
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