Life is full of surprises; some are pleasant and welcome, while others we would sooner avoid. In today’s first reading St. Paul suggests that the second coming of Our Lord will be more like a pleasant surprise than a panic-inducing shock to our systems. That’s because we are children of God and children of the light. We have already made, or are striving to make, the changes that Our Lord’s second coming will call for. And not only that, we know where this surprise is meant to lead us: to heaven itself.
Each night at Compline we pause to look back over our day. And we may well be surprised at what has transpired in our lives over the course of the day. There will be a mixture of good surprises and more challenging surprises, both personal and communal.
Whatever has happened, you can be sure that in Christ, and with the encouragement the people with whom we share our lives, there is nothing we can’t handle. We should never be tempted to go it alone when we are part of a community, because we have at our fingertips all the resources we need to face any surprise that life throws at us. As each day rolls by we learn from our mistakes and resolve to do better tomorrow as we prepare for the biggest surprise of all: Our Lord’s return in glory.
Dum Tacet Clamat 