A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables when a voice in the dark said, 'Jesus knows you're here.'
He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze. When he heard nothing more, he shook his head and continued.
Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard 'Jesus is watching you.'
Startled, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.
'Did you say that?' he hissed at the parrot.
'Yes', the parrot confessed, then squawked, 'I'm just trying to warn you that he's watching you.'
The burglar relaxed. 'Warn me, huh? Who in the world are you?'
'Moses,' replied the bird.
'Moses?' the burglar laughed. 'What kind of people would name a bird Moses?'
'The kind of people who would name a Rottweiler Jesus.'
Be sure of this:
if the master of the house had known the hour
when the thief was coming,
he would not have let his house be broken into.
You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect,
the Son of Man will come.”
Jesus is coming again! He says it himself – he will come to us when won’t expect it like a thief in the night.
He will come, however, not to harm us or steal our stereos. He is coming to steal our hearts in order to fill them with his love and joy!
When will this happen?
Well, it already happened 2,000 years ago when he first came into this world in order to bring love and joy into this world and then died on the cross out of love for all of us.
Our faith tells us he will come again a second time at the end of time of which we don’t know the day nor the hour but we have to ready for that, too, anyway.
In the meantime we must gird our loins and light our lamps and welcome him into our lives in these “middle” times before his first coming and his second coming.
We allow him to break into our minds when we take the time to pray every day. We allow him to pick the locks of hearts when we receive him in the Eucharist. We allow him to crash down the doors of our souls when we take the time to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, give a drink to those who are thirsty, forgive a sinner.
As this thief once said in another gospel, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)
So let’s be ready and alert for this special thief who covets the greatest possession we have – our hearts. This thief who only wants to steal them away from us and then return them back to us filled with his love, charity and joy.
This thief named Jesus!