Reason # 37 – Set Your House in Order. There’s a Gospel Song written back in the 1950’s called “Jesus Hits Like an Atom Bomb!” It is a warning to be prepared for death. Here are a few of the lyrics:
Every body’s worried ’bout that Atom Bomb. No one seems worried about the Day my Lord shall come! Better set your house in order, He may be coming soon, and He’ll hit like an Atom Bomb when He comes!
Getting to Mass every Sunday is an essential component of having our house, our soul, in order. Honestly, life is about getting ready to die. Are you ready? Death may come in an instant. Are you ready? Mass is a wonderful way to prepare ourselves for that day for several reasons.
- Jesus makes a promise in John 6:40 that Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I will raise him up on the last day. That’s quite a promise in terms of being ready! Jesus is saying that frequent reception of the Eucharist is essential preparation for the Last Day.
- The Commandment is clear: Keep holy the Sabbath. It doesn’t make sense to think that we can disregard one of the Ten Commandments and then be ready for the Last Day. Some argue that this commandment does not mean we should be in Church necessarily but Leviticus 23:3 says regarding this Commandment, “You shall do no work and you shall keep sacred assembly, it is the Sabbath of the Lord.” Sacred assembly is “Church,” y’all. No way around it. God expects us to be in his house on our Sabbath which is Sunday. Gotta be there regularly to be ready!
- The Book of Hebrews says, “And let us not neglect to meet together regularly and to encourage one another, all the more since the Day draws near.” See here how the Last “Day” and being prepared for it is linked to “meeting together regularly.” Gotta be there regularly to be ready!
- Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in you (Jn 6:53). Without Holy Communion we’re not going to make it. Gotta receive regularly to be ready!
OK so here is an important reason to come home and to get there fast: Better Set your house in order, He may be coming soon and he’ll hit like an atom bomb when he comes.
Enjoy this video. Observe in it all the readiness preparations for the nuclear bombs that some of us who are older may remember. In a way all the preparations you see in the video are a little silly since diving under a desk wouldn’t help much if an atomb really hit! But the preparations I have mentioned above ARE helpful since God gives them to us. If the people in this video we’re getting ready with measures that probably wouln’t help much, how much more so for us who DO stand a chance since God himself instructs us! Set your house in order!
Monsignor Pope,
Can you comment on the phrase “do no work” on the Sabbath.
Perhaps I should do a post on this topic since I don’t think I can do justice to the topic here in comments and late at night! However, the basic New Testament position the topic is set by Jesus himself when he consistently distances himself from the extremely legalistic notions of the Pharisees who had extremely strict and restrictive rules about what was work and what was not. Jesus says that the Sabbath was made for man. And hence where there is some doubt as to what is work and what is not let the favor of the doubt be to us. We should avoid unecessary work on Sunday. Some have to work, no choice there. But if we can reasonably avoid work and unpleasant tasks we ought to. However, obsessively trying to define “Work” in effect veto’s Jesus’ dismissal of excessive legalism. THe point is REST and Worship not, worry about details. Family gatherings are great for Sunday but someone must cook and clean for such events (usually the women get stuck with this 🙂 ) Point is, family, rest, worship, A day set aprt for the Lord and enoying the fruits of our labor.