One of the more interesting and surprising images the Lord used for Himself was “thief.” There is an example of the reading for Wednesday of the 21st week of the year. I’ll comment more on this specific passage in a moment, but first here are some other texts in which He used this imagery:
- But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him (Matt 24:33; Lk 12:39).
- Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you (Rev 3:3).
- “Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed” (Rev 16:15).
St. Peter also used the image of a thief, but perhaps out of reverence for Christ he applied it more to the Day of Judgment.
- But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (2 Peter 3:10).
In today’s first reading, which we will discuss in more detail, St. Paul used a similar image.
- Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief … let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess 5:1-4; 8-9).
It is provocative and even shocking that Lord would compare Himself to a thief. Let’s consider some of the implications.
1. By this image the Lord turns the tables. Thievery suggests unjust possession. In this sense, the Lord is clearly not a thief; rather, He is using a simile. He says that He is like a thief, not that He is a thief. Indeed, how can the owner of all things unjustly possess what is already His?
The impact and indictment of the reference is on us, not on the Lord. That He would seem to any of us to be like a thief is indicative of our injustice, not His. Too easily we forget that the things we call our own are God’s and God’s alone. We are stewards, not owners. When the Lord comes to take what is rightfully His—and has always been His—we should be grateful to hand it back with interest (see the Parable of the Talents). To those who have forgotten that they are mere stewards, the Lord will seem to come to steal from them. They will see His coming as a threat because He will put an end to their schemes and worldly wealth.
Because they wrongly see these things as theirs, they will see Him as a thief—or worse, a robber. In the Parable of the Vineyard (Matthew 21:30ff) the Lord says that they will beat His prophets and even kill His Son. The injustice and crime are theirs. God cannot steal what He already owns. The vineyard was His and He rightly sought His portion of its proceeds. Murderously, they sought to withhold what they thought was theirs but in fact was not.
The Lord’s ways are justice and truth. God will take back all that is His. We will pay for what we have stolen through greed, injustice, selfishness, lust, and gluttony. To those who forget that He is the true owner of the vineyard, He may appear to be like a thief, but it is really we who are thieves. We will cry “Thief!” but the Lord will simply reply, “You are the man; it is you who have said it” (see 2 Sam 12:7; Matt 26:64).
2. By this image the Lord speaks to the hidden quality of His presence to some. In using the image of a thief (Κλέπτης (kleptes) in Greek) the Lord speaks of a stealthy, hidden presence. Thieves do their work in hiding or when we are unaware. A robber, on the other hand, confronts you, taking what he wants with violence while you can only watch helplessly.
The word thief here is indicative of the Lord’s hidden presence. The Lord is not a thief, but He seems like one to those who are forgetful of His presence. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that He is not in the house of your life; He sees and knows everything.
3. By this image the Lord puts to the lie the illusion of our own hiddenness. Thieves work in hiding. Many people who sin and misuse what the Lord owns often forget that nothing is hidden from God. Thus they meet the definition of a thief because they attempt to take or misuse secretly what is not theirs to begin with.
God may seem hidden and distant, but He is not. He sees everything, knows everything, and is reckoning everything. Every “hidden” deed of ours is written in the book. An ancient hymn says,
Lo the Book exactly worded
Wherein all has been recorded
Thence shall judgment be awarded.
When the Judge his seat attaineth
And each hidden deed arraigneth
Nothing unavenged remaineth (Dies Irae).
God is watching, and He is closer to you than you are to yourself.
4. By this image the Lord exhorts us to remember and to be ready. A break-in at my rectory motivated me and the staff to become more careful and vigilant, but why should the loss of passing goods cause us more concern than the certain arrival of the Lord, the true owner of all things? Although He may seem to come like a thief, He is not a thief. The real questions I should be asking myself are these: Am I a thief? Have I used what God owns in ways that are against His will or that displease Him? If so, He will come when I least expect it and take what I wrongfully think is mine. I may think Him a thief, but He is not. As true owner, He cannot unjustly possess what is already His.
We had better think about this now because the Lord is already in the house and His presence will be disclosed at any moment. Are you ready? Are you watching? Be vigilant. The Judge stands at the gate, but He has the key, not you.
Is He a thief? No. Are you a thief? Am I?
Epilogue: When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas, who was a thief (see John 12:6), led a band of brigands to arrest Him. Stepping forward, Jesus turned the tables on them and said, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me?” (Mk 14:48) Yes, He turned the tables on them and on the temple leaders who sponsored them. They saw Jesus as a usurper, as one who came to steal their priesthood and leadership. He was no thief, no robber. He was the great High Priest, the One who came to fulfill everything that they were supposed to be preaching. It was they who sought to kill Him and unjustly take the vineyard for themselves. To thieves, robbers, and murderers, Jesus was like a thief, but He was not. They were thieves—and even worse, robbers and murderers.
When Jesus says that He may be coming like a thief, be careful; the Lord will come to take back what is His.
This analogy sounds so frightening. I can only hope to be like the thief next to Jesus on the Cross who “steals” Heaven.
Thanks you Msgr; a timely piece of advice for us all. We don’t know the day or the hour.
Prepare in advance, “spiritually” sort through all that you have and throw away what is worthless, give away what you can and pack up everything else that you need. And then when He calls you will be ready, never wanting to look back.
He is a like a theif in the night because he comes to those still in the darkness, not yet born of the spirit and wandering around in the desert of sin. Not until you are born of the spirit, having gone through 3 stages of growth, and entered into contemplative prayer do you become a xhild of light. We are but children born through water and untill we become apt in the prayer and enter into ‘enlightenment/contemplative prayer’, mansions 3-6 in St. Teresa’s ‘interior castle’ and what she calls mental prayer. Until we grow in our prayer life, we are blind and wander through the darkness. We are the seed that is sown 3 times and not until the forth time does the seed fall on rich soil and produces 30,60, 100 fold. We are trees that have yet to produce for three years and the owner wants to cut down, the gardner tells the lord, let us cultivate the soil around it and if it doesnt produce fruit the forth year then cut it down. In lev 19:23-25 when planting a tree in a new land (babtism of water we enter into new land) you are to treat its fruit as if uncircumcised, for 3 years it shall be so and you shall not eat it’s fruit. In the forth year (crossing over into contemplation and mental prayer) all the fruit shall be dedicated to the Lord in a joyful celebration……(jubilee and release of slaves…dead and slaves to sin released to their homeland which is heaven and union with Christ) in the 5th year you may partake of the fruit, to increase your yeild.
The journey of Isrealites in their exudos, meaning to decease, crossing the red sea represents babtism of water. They travel 40 years, which represents a probationary period, till they learn to trust in God wholehearidly. They were nurtured by manna and water from the Rock, who is Christ. Not until they cross over the Jordan into the promised land, moving from death and wilderness of sin, to life; do they start producing their own fruit. When they produce their own fruit, they are weaned, and the manna stops. They produce 30, 60, 100 fold. Everyone that lives on milk lacks experience of rhe word of God, for he is a child. But solid food is for the Mature (those who have been weaned) for those whose faculties have been trained by PRACTICE to discern good and evil. Heb 5:13
Interestingly enough, Fatima in arabic means a chaste woman or virgin and also one that weans a child. So Fatima means a virgin Mother that weans a child. And feast day of our lady of Fatima is 5-13. A reflecrion of aforementioned scripture. Hint hint! It is the Virgin Mother who is the one that leads us into union and contemplative prayer with Jesus. She is the ark that goes 2000 cubits (also a messurement of time) before the Isrealites at the Jordan, to reverse the flow of the river Jordan, meaning descender, from Adam to the dead sea….so that rest of tribes may Cross on dry ground into land of Milk and Honey, the promised Land. She is crowned with twelve stars which reflects the ark being surrounded by 12 people chosen from each tribe.
So He comes like a theif in the night to get souls that are still in the darkness. HE does this through us and our prayers, we become channel of graces for others that we pray for and it is Jesus Christ, like Joshua that leads a nation of children into the spiritual and contemplative life. MARY, the first in order of Grace, as all comes from God and our lord through her to us to others. She is the Mother and mediatrix of all graces and we become parts of the river of life that flows through us like a well of living water springing from our souls. The true fountain of youth, that people search in the world for vlondly not knowing the fountsin of youth is spiritual and contained within.
A theif in the night, to claim the souls that are His, the coins of heaven that bear the image of wjo they represent. Give to Ceasar what is Ceasars and to God what is Gods. HE wants His souls and and comes to tjose in the dsrkness to steal them back to their true Homeland. And we are the ones He works through. The rapture is thenmovement from desth of sin into life in the spirit. GOD is spirit snd must be worshipped in spirit of prayer.
In Mark, Jesus is babtised and the Spirit comes upon Him like a dove. In Luke Jesus is babtised and and was PRAYING, the HOLY SPIRIT descended upon him like a dove. In Matthew, Jesus is babtised and the SPIRIT OF GOD descends on Him like a dove. 3 spirits; Spirit, Holy Spirit, Spirit of GOD. Reflection of Trinity and the 3 main stages of growth ww ho theough….beginners, contemplative, unitive.
WITH Love,
A contemplative in union
This is wonderful, Msgr. Pope. Thank you!