Live in the Present (Wednesday, Week 21, Year 2)

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Apart from their renown for hypocrisy, the Pharisees and Scribes were also known to have emerged from a past generation of people who murdered the prophets. And they seemed to have been outwardly disturbed about that image of having a terrible past. That is why they said, “If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets” (Matt. 23:30). 

Sometimes, we worry so much about our past mistakes, regrets and experiences that we fail to live fully in the present. The past is gone; the present is here! Live in the present.

One of the reasons why St Paul cautioned the Thessalonians against any false teaching on the Second Coming of Christ and the End of the World was that many Thessalonians had already begun to lazy around or live in idleness (cf. 2 Thess. 3:6-12) probably because they thought that if the Second Coming of Christ or the end of the world was imminent, there was no need working. We see a people who were already building castles in the air, living in a future that was not even certain. 

From the time of those Thessalonians till our present time, it is over 2000 years already.  Has the Second coming of Christ taken place as they expected? No! And has the world come to an end? No! Sometimes, we allow future expectations to control our present. The future is not yet here; and so we can’t be 100% sure of what the future holds. Again, let us live fully in the present.   


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