Reading 1 Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7
You, LORD, are our father,
our redeemer you are named forever.
Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways,
and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your heritage.
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
with the mountains quaking before you,
while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,
such as they had not heard of from of old.
No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you
doing such deeds for those who wait for him.
Would that you might meet us doing right,
that we were mindful of you in our ways!
Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful;
all of us have become like unclean people,
all our good deeds are like polluted rags;
we have all withered like leaves,
and our guilt carries us away like the wind.
There is none who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to cling to you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have delivered us up to our guilt.
Yet, O LORD, you are our father;
we are the clay and you the potter:
we are all the work of your hands.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
R. (4) Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power,
and come to save us.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Reading 2 1 Cor 1:3-9
Brothers and sisters:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always on your account
for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
that in him you were enriched in every way,
with all discourse and all knowledge,
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He will keep you firm to the end,
irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful,
and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel Mk 13:33-37
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad.
He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
each with his own work,
and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
Watch, therefore;
you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming,
whether in the evening, or at midnight,
or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!'”
Catholic Fundamentalism Interpretation:
The prophet Isaiah is aware that The Loving Programmer can save us from destroying error. He wonders why He has let us so thoroughly violate The Operating Instructions, and why we’re allowed to let our vanity separate us from His power.
He asks Him to return to us, pleading for the Messiah. Isaiah begs Him to smash the physical laws and come to us, performing miracles to show His Power in completely new ways, unknown to history.
When He comes, Isaiah asks that He find us obeying The Operating Instructions, paying close attention to them in what we do.
He realizes that The Loving Programmer is angry with us, and understands that human programs are willfully making errors.
He knows that we human programs have let ourselves be corrupted to the point that even the little good we do is an embarrassment. Our willful errors cause us to embrace more fads, our souls are like leaves in the wind.
None of the human programs calls upon The Loving Programmer for programming assistance. We do not rely on Him, because He has turned His Face from us and let us be destroyed by our own separation from Him. Yet, O Loving Programmer, You have made us. You are the potter, we have been programmed and downloaded within The Creation Program by You.
R. Loving Programmer, overcome our vanity so that we turn to You. Let us see You directly, and we’ll believe, obey, and be saved.
O shepherd of your people, listen, from Your throne on the angels, let Your light penetrate the darkness within us. Awaken Your power and come, save us.
R. Loving Programmer, overcome our vanity so that we turn to You. Let us see You directly, and we’ll believe, obey, and be saved.
One more time, O Loving Programmer of all, look down from Your throne and let the sight of us go into You, take care of us, protect what You have programmed and downloaded with The Messiah.
R. Loving Programmer, overcome our vanity so that we turn to You. Let us see You directly, and we’ll believe, obey, and be saved.
May You have Your Program take human form and come powerfully among us. Then, we whom You have chosen will no longer separate ourselves from You. Restore our programs, give us a new life obeying You, and we will call upon Your Name. (We dare not call on You directly, Your power is too great.)
R. Loving Programmer, overcome our vanity so that we turn to You. Let us see You directly, and we’ll believe, obey, and be saved.
Brothers and sisters, may The Loving Programmer and Jesus, The Program Who took perfect, obedient, human form and came among us in the Person of Christ, provide you with the grace to access Him.
I always thank The Loving Programmer for having downloaded the Grace of The Program within you.
That download made you better in every way, giving you all the knowledge you needed as The Program’s imposing power became known to you.
You aren’t lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for The Program’s revelation. He will keep you close to Him until the end, and you will not be guilty of sin. The Loving Programmer is faithful (to those who believe in Him, and, in another way, to those who don’t), and He called you to access with The Program, Jesus Christ, the entirety of The Creation Program in perfect, obedient, human form.
Jesus warns His believers to be very, very alert. In every age, Christians are told to be see that we don’t fall into sin before He must judge us.
The analogy is clear: We are like hirelings whose master has taken a trip, leaving us in charge while he’s gone. We are to do our work and our duty. He does provide priests and bishops to warn us if we go astray so that we can get back to our jobs before He arrives.
Watch out! We don’t know when Jesus will return. It may be at the beginning, early, middle, late, or final time of our life.
May He not come suddenly, when you think it’s safe to ignore His Operating Instructions. The Loving Program says to all believers in every age: “Watch (out)!”
