Repent says the Lord, the kingdom of heaven is at hand
Usually when I think on this, it is easy to think about how none of us know the day or hour we will die. What comes to mind is our mortality, and sometimes that is hard to trust in, will the kingdom of heaven be at hand for me? It would be convenient to be prepared right before but preparation for heaven requires us to be vigilant our whole life! It can happen at any moment, you could slip on ice or Jesus could return and the world could end (a couple extremes, I know).
I looked to the Bible to see what else I could find pertaining to repentance and the kingdom of heaven and found a God who is there even when he is angry at us. Psalm 78:17-39, the people test the Lord (not surprising since this is a common theme amongst us). Even though God is angry, he still feeds his people in the desert. They continue to test God, and he ended their days abruptly, their years in sudden death. They did not know their hour, it was sudden! After God had given them what they wanted I’m sure they did not expect for their days to end. Were they ready? Waiting, prepared for the Lord? The people repented and God was merciful and forgave them.
We are more fortunate than the people in the psalm, we have this beautiful sacrament of confession. It is available to us every day and we can go experience God’s mercy and forgiveness to be more prepared than the people in the psalm. Our gospel acclamation this week says “Repent says the Lord, the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. God continues to remind us this in every age, and one of these days the kingdom of heaven really will be at hand. Will you do what God asks and repent, be prepared and vigilant, or will you put Him to the test?