In today's first reading, Isaiah 38: 1-6, 21-22, 7-8, God sends the prophet Isaiah to Hezekiah to say to him: "Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover." Hezekiah, we are told, "turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord: 'O Lord, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in your presence, doing what was pleasing to you!' And Hezekiah wept bitterly."
What if, tonight, God sent you and me a messenger who informed us that we are about to die and, therefore, we should "put [our] house in order, for [we] are about to die." How would we react? What would we say to the Lord, our God? Could we, as did Hezekiah, say to the Lord: "O Lord, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in your presence, doing what was pleasing to you"?
What would we need to put in order, if we had only a short period of time to live? Could we say to the Lord: "I have been faithful and I have served you wholeheartedly as a husband/a wife, as a student, as a member of my religious community, as a parishioner, as a citizen?
What changes would I, would you, need to make so that we can say with Hezekiah at the end of our lives: "I have been faithful and have put my whole heart into my marriage, into my role as father/mother/grandfather/grandmother/aunt/uncle/son/daughter? What do I, do you, need to do differently so as to be faithful to my vowed commitment, my baptismal vows, and in carrying out my responsibilities to my parish, my civic community, my county?
In today's Gospel Acclamation, Jn 10:27, the Lord says to us: My sheep hear my voice,...; I know them and they follow me." Hezekiah faithfully followed the Lord!
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