Stay awake for you do not know when your Lord will come.

"Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The kingdom of heaven will be like ten Virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.  Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 
The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps."  (Matthew 25:  1 - 4).

The foolish virgins did not anticipate a delay and were unprepared when the bridegroom was long delayed. (v5)

St. Augustine in his Sermons, 93 wrote: "Watch with the heart, watch with faith, watch with love, watch with charity, watch with good works […]; make ready the lamps, make sure they do not go out […], renew them with inner oil of an upright conscience; then shall the Bridegroom enfold you in the embrace of his love and bring you into his banquet room, where your lamp can never be extinguished."

"Stay awake and be ready!
For you do not know on what day your Lord will come."  (Matthew 24: 42, 44).

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You cannot serve God and mammon.

"No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”  (Luke 16: 13).

What is mammon?

Lust of the flesh
Lust of the eye
Pride of life
Food
Comfort
Sports and pastimes
Riches
Honors
Praise of men

"I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever hunger; no one who believes in me will ever thirst." (John 6: 35)

You cannot serve God and mammon. Both are mutually exclusive. If you pick up one, you drop the other. The Bread of life destroys hunger for mammon in our lives. Hunger for mammon destroys hunger for the Bread of life. It is either one or the other. Never the two at the same.
Jesus the Bread of life is the antidote against mammon.

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The Lord made him a priest forever.

"The Lord established for him a covenant of peace, and made him the prince, that he might have the dignity of the priesthood for ever."  (Sirach 45: 30)

Today is the Memorial of St Leo the Great.  Who is this man?  He was Pope and Doctor of the Church who lived in the 5th century and helped to define what we know today as the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.

"God, who never allow the gates of hell to prevail against your Church,
firmly founded on the apostolic rock, grant her, we pray, that through the intercession of Pope Saint Leo, she may stand firm in your truth and know the protection of lasting peace.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever."  (Collect on the Feast of St Leo the Great).

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The Sanctuary is the source of every blessing from God.

"I saw water flowing from the temple, and all who were touched by it were saved."  (Cf Ezekiel 47: 1, 9).

"Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”  (Ezekiel 47: 12).

Water and fire are popular images for the Holy Spirit. In the above Scripture, we are told that all types of blessings flow from the Sanctuary.  The Sanctuary is where the Church calls upon the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  From the Sanctuary flows the blessings of salvation to the waiting world.

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Don't be intimidated by the cost of discipleship.

"Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?"  (Luke 14: 28).

What is the cost of following Jesus? Read the Gospels and you will find that the cost of the discipleship is all time, all talent and all treasure.  Does Jesus deserve less? Absolutely No!  Some people commit everything to their work or business.

The first Commandment comes to mind again:

"Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."  (Mark 12: 29 - 30).

With the constant availability of the Holy Spirit, nothing can overcome us. (Cf Romans 8: 31 - 32).  No towers to construct. No army to vanquish.

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The King gave a great dinner and those invited brazenly rejected the invitation.

“A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many.  When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, ‘Come, everything is now ready.’  But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves."  (Luke 14:  16 - 18).

The Great Dinner represents the Heavenly Banquet, the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.  The Sunday Eucharist is a replica, a rehearsal of the Heavenly Banquet. The Host of the Banquet is the Lord Jesus Himself.

Why should anyone reject such an invitation?  Such brazen insult reminds one of the Sin against the 1st Commandment:

#1. " I am the Lord your God:  You shall have no strange gods before Me."  (Exodus 20: 3).

Do I love anybody or anything more than God?

Do I give God time everyday for prayer?  Do I seek to love him with my whole heart?  Have I been involved with superstitious practices?  Have I been involved with the occult?  Do I seek to surrender myself to God’s Word as taught by the Church?  Have I ever received Communion in a state of mortal sin?

"Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled."  (Luke 14: 23)

The Lord Jesus wants the Sunday Mass to be filled to capacity.
"Make holy the Lord's Day."

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When you have a party, invite those who cannot repay you.

"Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;  blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”  (Luke 14: 13 - 14).

Jesus it would appear looks forward to dinner invitations since it gives Him a teaching moment to meet the kind of crowd He did not reach on daily basis.  Here Jesus gives a difficult lesson to the aristocratic group gathered for the dinner and frankly to us as well.

Why are humans so self centered? Even little children act always in a quid pro quo manner.  Jesus set a new rule in the Kingdom He gave His life for. Act like your Heavenly Father, who is lavishly generous to All His children, Jesus admonishes.

"All you who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come, buy grain and eat; Come, buy grain without money,
wine and milk without cost!"  (Isaiah 55: 1).

Jesus offers the Bread of life free of charge.

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11-6

"Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;  blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”  (Luke 14: 13 - 14).

Jesus it would appear looks forward to dinner invitations since it gives Him a teaching moment to meet the kind of crowd He did not reach on daily basis.  Here Jesus gives a difficult lesson to the aristocratic group gathered for the dinner and frankly to us as well.

Why are humans so self centered? Even little children act always in a quid pro quo manner.  Jesus set a new rule in the Kingdom He gave His life for. Act like your Heavenly Father, who is lavishly generous to All His children, Jesus admonishes.

"All you who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come, buy grain and eat; Come, buy grain without money,
wine and milk without cost!"  (Isaiah 55: 1).

Jesus offers the Bread of life free of charge.

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