Thursday in the Third Week of Lent: Daily Lenten Meditations

WATCH AND PRAY

He had just finished the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. They had seen the foolish five standing disconsolate outside the closed doors of the banquet hall with the voice of the bridegroom calling out into the night: “I know you not.” Poor, foolish things, they had not been ready when the bridegroom came and now it was too late. Helpless, hopeless regret for their folly was all that remained to them. Then came the application to His dear ones, personal, direct, the kindly warning of a keenly interested Friend: “Watch, therefore, and pray, for you know not the day nor the hour.”

To me also my Divine Friend speaks the same sobering words: “Watch and pray, for you know not the day nor the hour.” What day and hour? When the Bridegroom shall come. When the Master shall call me to say that life’s work is done, and I must give an account of my stewardship. What day and hour? The day and hour when I shall die; when I shall leave this mortal life to enter upon a changeless eternity.

A sobering thought indeed—that death is certain to come, but to come like a thief in the night when least expected. A friend’s warning that, to be sure—to watch and pray, to keep my lamp filled with oil, to be ready to die when God so wills.

Am I ready today? If the summons should come before sundown today, would I have anything to regret? Would I long for delay? Am I ready to die without more time to prepare?

Let me pause and reflect and prepare now.

Jesus, Divine Friend, have mercy on us.

EPISTLE AND GOSPEL: Taken from the Angelus Press 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

EPISTLE: Jer. 17:5-10

The Prophet speaks to us of two men, one of whom put his trust in himself and the other in God; the first dries up like the heather in the desert, and the second bears the abundant fruits of his good works.

Thus saith the Lord God: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like tamaric in the desert, and he shall not see when good shall come: but he shall dwell in dryness in the desert, in a salt land, and not inhabIted. Blessed be the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence. And he shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots towards moisture: and it shall not fear when the heat cometh. And the leaf thereof shall be green, and in the time of drought it shall not be solicitous, neither shall it cease at any time to bring forth fruit. The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable: who can know it? I am the Lord Who search the heart, and prove the reins: Who give to every one according to his way, and according to the fruit of his devices: saith the Lord almighty.

GOSPEL:  Lk. 16:19-31

There were two men, says Jesus in the parable, one of whom enjoyed life instead of doing penance, and the other suffered. The first went to hell, whilst the second was carried by the Angels into Abraham’s bosom, i.e., limbo.

At that time Jesus said to the Pharisees: There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one did give him: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the Angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died, and he was buried in hell. And lifting up his eyes when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, and he cried and said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. And Abraham said to him: Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot, nor from thence come hither. And he said: Then, father, I beseech thee that thou wouldst send him to my father’s house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments. And Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the Prophets: let them hear them. But he said: No, father Abraham: but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance. And he said to him: If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they believe if one rise again from the dead.