I remember as a kid that my Mom would call upstairs to wake me in the morning, "Wake up! I'm not going to call you again!" I was so comfortable under the blankets, especially on the coldest winter mornings - all I wanted was a few more moments. But then suddenly I was late and frustrated that I had not noticed the time. What would it have taken for me to get up and do what I knew I needed to do? Today's readings tell us that nothing can wake us if we choose to be complacent and to stay in our old ways.

As the readings turn our minds to the end of the Church year and to the end of time, we need to waken ourselves from our complacency and do what is just for the sake of the poor. How else can we follow the will of the Father and the urgings of the Holy Spirit, recorded in the Scriptures? How else can we avoid the fate of the five brothers in today's Gospel, to get up and do what we need to do? There are no more messengers coming, we have all the warnings that we need. All that remains is simply to do justice.

The readings today call those who are powerful to account. Far more important than the great battles won or the great deals done is how the powerful treat the powerless. It is upon this basis that the last judgment will fall. In the reading from the prophet Amos, we see that even those who follow the letter of the law but not its spirit will be held to a higher standard.

The letter to Timothy recognizes that if we expect rulers and those who have power to meet this standard, they will need our help in prayer. And what of the poor?

The Gospel reading today seems to show Jesus telling the poor to use whatever means they have at their disposal, and praises the steward who is clearly doing something that a court of law would consider dishonest. The point, it seems, is that at the end, nothing matters more than our eternal salvation, and we need to focus all our efforts on being found in the company of those who dwell in the light.

Today's readings seem to be talking to people who get lost in life. It's one thing not to find the right exit on the interstate or to lose your car in the parking lot at the mall, but it is amazing how easily people seem to lose the sense of direction for their lives. The readings make it clear that God is aware of this and does not destroy those who are lost, rather the Father sent Christ to save the lost sheep and to save Paul.

The message for us all is that once we are no longer lost, we, like Paul are charged and sent in the Holy Spirit to a fallen world, to seek out those who are still lost. If we take Paul as our model, it is precisely our fallen nature that makes us the best ambassadors for Christ to those who are lost, for we know what life can be like without God. At the same time, we are compelled to seek out the lost by the fact that God has found us, by the fact that we have been given this immeasurable gift. In gratitude we can do no less.

The reading from the letter to Philemon is one of those moving passages in the scriptures. Saint Paul, writing as his life nears its end, begs for the freedom for a slave who has served the mission of the Gospel. He asks the owner to accept the slave as a brother; by these words we are called to look at all of our relationships and find a place for Christ in them.

In the Gospel, Jesus asks us to be even more radical and to put our lives in perspective. We need to despise anything on earth that does not make of us a better disciple. Not even concern for our family can take precedence over our relationship with God. It is only in being totally dedicated to God that we can accept the gift of our salvation. If we look anywhere else, we will not find that true treasure