Don’t Miss the Moment

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Jesus gives us a strange image in today’s Gospel when talking about Lot and Sodom. People are eating, drinking, marrying, buying, selling, planting, building. In other words, they are doing completely normal things. And that is exactly the point. The problem was not that they were doing something obviously evil. The problem was that they were so absorbed in ordinary life that they failed to notice what really mattered. They were living, but they were not awake.

And that can happen to us very easily. We can wake up, go to work, answer messages, make plans, pay bills, scroll, eat, sleep, and repeat. None of those things are necessarily wrong. But little by little, we can become so busy managing life that we forget the purpose of life. We start acting as if this world is all there is, as if we have unlimited time, as if conversion can always wait until later. Jesus is not trying to scare us; He is trying to wake us up.

There is one line in this Gospel that is especially challenging: “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.” That goes against everything in us. We want to hold on. We want control. We want security. We want to protect our plans, our comfort, our image, our future. But Jesus says that the more tightly we cling to life on our own terms, the more we risk missing life with Him. Sometimes faith is not about adding one more thing to our schedule. Sometimes it is about surrendering the things we keep gripping too tightly.

So maybe the question today is not, “When will the Son of Man come?” Maybe the better question is, “If He came today, would He find me ready?” Not perfect. Not finished. But awake. Would He find me trying to forgive? Trying to pray? Trying to love? Trying to let go of the sin I keep excusing? Readiness is not panic. Readiness is simply living today in such a way that we would not be afraid to meet the Lord.

The tragedy would be to spend our whole life preparing for everything except eternity. Jesus is reminding us that life is short, grace is real, and the moment to respond is now. Not tomorrow. Not when things settle down. Not when we feel more spiritual. Now. Because the greatest danger is not that God will come unexpectedly. The greatest danger is that He is already calling us, and we are too distracted to notice.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, wake me from whatever has made my heart sleepy. Free me from the illusion that I have endless time. Teach me to live today with faith, courage, and surrender. Help me hold lightly to what passes away and cling closely to You, who never pass away. Make me ready, not afraid, when You call. Amen.

– Homily by Rev. Fr. Patrick Agbeko