November 16, 33rd Sunday in OT, Cycle A

Next Sunday is the Last of the Church Year. So, this weekend's readings bring us very near to the "end of time," so our readings speak of the “end” of things as we know them. St. Paul discusses death and the world’s end with the Thessalonians, and in the Gospel, Christ gives a parable about “making an accounting” for all that has been given us. Obviously, these readings are preparations for the “end,” and ask us to always keep “the Higher Purpose” to Which our lives are dedicated, and for Which we will have to answer in the forefront of our minds. But it’s the first reading, from Proverbs, that tells us HOW to prepare. This reading is the “Eshet Chayil”–the celebration of the “Valiant Woman,” as the Text is known in Judaism, as it is read every Sabbath. How does she (the valiant woman, the "mother of Israel") teach us how to “prepare ourselves for the End?” She merely does what needs to be done, each day. For it’s in the daily tasks of life that we “work out our salvation,” as St. Paul put it. We bring light to the darkness, lift the fallen, help the hungry, care for the fragile. It’s in our daily living that our lives conform themselves to the Christ. Let’s get busy, then. As we’d say in Kansas, where I was raised: “Time’s a wasting!’”