Mt 24:42-51
Stay awake then, for you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Obviously, if the owner of the house knew at what time the thief was coming, he would certainly stay up and not allow his house to be broken into. So be alert, for the Son of Man will come at the hour you least expect.
Imagine a faithful and prudent servant, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give them food at the proper time. Fortunate, indeed, is that servant, whom his master will find at work when he comes. Truly I say to you, his lord will entrust him with everything he has.
Not so with the bad servant, who thinks, ‘My master is delayed.’ And he begins to ill-treat his fellow servants, while eating and drinking with drunkards. But his master will come on the day he does not know, and at the hour he least expects. He will punish that servant severely; and place him with the hypocrites. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
REFLECTION
It is difficult to be a good parent. Each child is so different from the next! Each requires close observation in order to be truly understood. And that requires a lot of time and attention on the part of, say, a dutiful father. If, on top of that, a father has to hold down a job which is very demanding, and if a father is going through times of political upheaval, he will have to be a very good man to fulfill all his duties as a husband, a father, and a provider.
The saint we are remembering today fills pretty much the above description, except that his particular job was to be a king. Louis, king of France, raised eleven children. And he raised them in an exceptionally good way, making true Christians of them. As a king, he went through great pains to be absolutely fair toward everybody. Unfortunately, he felt compelled to heed the call of the Pope and to join the Crusade of 1248, only to return to France after 6 years of great hardships. In 1267 Louis participated in a second Crusade, but this time he died of disease in Tunis.
Here was a truly holy layman. We need many more laymen like him.
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