For those of you who are as old as I am, it can be hard to believe that it has been almost twenty years since we began the new millennium. Given the expectations that awaited the change of millennium in 1999, it is actually amazing how well things have gone. At the end of the 1990’s, there were all sorts of scenarios about how the world was going to end when the clock struck midnight and the new millennium came in. Not too surprisingly, there are many historical accounts which tell of the same kind of hysteria at the time of the millennia change in the year 999. One of the biggest concerns in 1999 was a fear that all computers were going to shut down because they had not been programmed in order to take into account the new dating for the years 2000 and after. As we approached midnight on December 31, 1999, many were waiting to see if chaos and total collapse of all computer networks was going to be the great tragedy of the new millennium.

I am sure I have told you this story before, but one of my favourite end of time stories took place at about this time. During the priests’ seminar in 1999, I was out for a walk one evening with a young priest, who at the time was a few years older then me, but not yet forty years old. We were out for a walk on Kingston Road and as we were walking, with great delight this priest explained to me how he was absolutely convinced that the world was about to end and that we were living in the last days. He sited every difficult news story in the papers at the time as proof that the world would soon be coming to an end. And while I found myself quite saddened by his accounts, the more detailed he got about his description of the end, the more celebratory his own mood seemed to get. As we neared the intersection of Kingston Road and Midland, he seemed to hit the height of his joy, as he explained the total chaos and near civil war that was going to embrace the world after all the computers shut down in 2000. So excited was he about his anticipated view of the end of the world, that he did not notice that the light had changed red and he stepped out into an on-coming car. Now, because I was not as inthralled with his description of the end of the world, I was able to reach out and pull him back from the on-coming car. At which point, I explained to him that he was so caught up in his theoretic version about how the world was going to end, that he just about missed his own end.

This is the message that Jesus is asking us to think about in today’s Gospel. As we come to the end of the liturgical year, and a new year will begin on the First Sunday of Advent, Jesus is challenging us to be ready for Him when he comes at the end of time, by being ready for Him as He comes to us today. Each year, we start the liturgical year with the season of Advent. This is a time prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus. After Christmas, we return to Ordinary Tine and recall the early events of Christ’s life. Throughout Lent, we get ready to renew our baptismal promises at Easter and then throughout the Easter Season we focus upon the life of the early Church and what it means for us to be anointed members of the Church. After Pentecost, we again return to Ordinary Time and the latter events of Christ’s life. The liturgical year always ends with readings about the end of time to remind us that one day each of us must be ready to meet Christ when he comes to meet us. The last Sunday of the liturgical year celebrates this call to be ready with the Solemnity of Christ the King. This feast reminds us that Christ will come at the end of time to judging the living and the dead and to rule all things through the power of His resurrection.

The problem is, that as Jesus tells us, we do not know when that will occur.  The way to be ready to meet Christ at the end of time, is to be ready to meet Him today. In fact, Jesus warns us not to get caught up with those false prophets that are always pointing us away from our daily lives and distracting us with theories about the end. Paul’s advise, in today’s second reading from his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, about how to be ready to meet the Lord is that we should just be about the work of our vocations and not allow ourselves to get caught up in idle gossip or talk that distracts us. To be ready to meet the Lord, our eyes should be set on the present and the search to find God’s face in the daily events of our lives.

One of the very significant words in our Church’s liturgy is “today.” The prayers at Mass, are always asking that “today” we might experience God’s love for us and live in His presence. In the “Our Father,” the very prayer that Jesus taught us, the importance of today is heavily emphasized. In that prayer, we pray that we might do God’s will and that He will give us the food that we need for the day in order that we might do that. The focus is on today. The only way to be ready to meet God when he comes for us at the end of time, is to be ready to meet Him as He comes today in our brother or sister in need, or in the daily events of our lives.

There is a prayer technique, that I first leaned when I began my seminary formation over thirty years ago, that helps me to look for the face of Jesus each day in my own life. It is called the “Examen Prayer” and was first taught to me by Father Joseph McCardle, s.j., who was the spiritual director of the seminary when I began, Over the years I have put this technique away on occasion, but I have rediscovered it repeatedly in the excellent writings of Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV, who has a gift for making the writings of St. Ignatius Loyola extremely practical and accessible. The “Examen Prayer” is a short prayer exercise, first put forward by St. Ignatius,  through which an individual looks for Christ in the events of her/his day and seeks to serve Him more fully during the course of the rest of the day or tomorrow. By looking for Christ’s face, those who seek Him attempt to deepen in their preparedness to serve Christ in the present and therefore to be ready to meet Him when Christ comes at the end of time. As we ourselves come to the end of a liturgical year and are encouraged to be ready to meet the Lord when He comes, I share it with you again today in the hopes that it will help you to be ready to see His face when Christ comes to encounter you— either today or at the end of time.

The “Examen Prayer” requires about ten to fifteen minutes in a quiet place to pray. One usually starts by sitting in silence and recognizing that she/he is in God’s presence. I will let the steps as given by Fr. Gallagher in his book, The Examen Prayer: Ignatian Wisdom for our Lives Today” guide us through the rest of what I share. He summarizes the “Examen Prayer” on page 23 of his book as follows:

An Outline of the Examen

Transition: I become aware of the love with which God looks upon me as I begin this examen.

Step One: Gratitude I note the gifts that God’s love has given me this day, and I give thanks to God for them.

Step Two: Petition. I ask God for an insight and a strength that will make this examen a work of grace, fruitful beyond my human capacity alone.

Step Three: Review. With my God, I review the day. I look for the stirrings in my heart and the thoughts that God has given me this day. I look also for those that have not been of God. I review my choices in responses to both, and throughout the day in general.

Step Four: Forgiveness. I ask for the healing touch of the forgiving God who, with love and respect for me , removes my heart’s burdens.

Step Five: Renewal. I look to the following day and, with God, plan concretely how to live it in accord with God’s loving desire for my life.

Transition: Aware of God’s presence with me. I prayerfully conclude the examen.

At the end of this liturgical year, Jesus reminds us that none of us know the time of His Final Coming. He even tells us to pay no attention to those who claim they know when He will make His final appearance. And yet, while we do not know when he is coming, He assures us that He is indeed coming one day to bring us to the Kingdom He has won for us. The readings today tell us to be ready always, so that we might be ready when He does come, and that the day may not catch us off guard. Frequent confession is one way to always be ready. I would also recommend the daily praying of the “Examen Prayer” as another way to insure that we are always ready and awake to meet the Lord when He comes today, at the end of time or at the end of our time.

My prayer for all of us today is that when the Lord does come for us, whenever that might be, He will find us all awake and alert.

Fr. Michael McGourty
Pastor— St. Peter’s Parish— Toronto, Ontario

P.S. If you are interested in buying Fr. Timothy’s Gallagher’s book, The Examen: Ignatian Wisdom for Our Lives Today, it was published by Crossroads Publishing Company and its ISBN # is: 13: 97-0-8245-2367-1