No Tomorrow

19^th Sunday of Ordinary Time; Luke 12:32-48

Be on guard, the Promised One will come when least expected.

She was a junior in college. Her dream was to become a physician, and she had the grades and drive to achieve it. She was fun to be with, beautiful, vivacious, and unselfish. When her parents received the call from the police that she had been found dead in her apartment, their grief was shattering. What has made it even worse, was that there was no cause of death ever determined. Still, after many years, why their amazing daughter died is unknown to them.

I think it is safe to say that most of us have experienced a tragic death in our family or friends at least once in our lives. If you have not: buckle up, because it’s coming. Death is hard to cope with, and tragic death is even harder, I believe.

Many times, in the course of Jesus’ teachings, he tells his followers that no one knows the time when the end will come. In his time, just as in ours, people tended to go about their business and not concern themselves with any consequences of their actions that day. Good or bad, people tend to believe that there will always be tomorrow to make up for what they did today. But tomorrow is promised to no one. [James 4:14]

I see this attitude all around me. The emphasis on “my needs” and “my desires”, seem to trump all else. Fast, noisy cars abound on the streets near me, driven by young people who do not have jobs. “I’ll get a job later and pay for it then.” A couple buys a mansion to live in, just for themselves. “We want to impress our co-workers. We’ll figure out the mortgage later.” Stores that sell fancy clothes and expensive jewelry are thriving. “I deserve to look good. I’ll just put it on my credit card.” “We’ll pay for this stuff tomorrow.”

But what happens when tomorrow never comes?

What about the “needs” and “desires” of the poor and marginalized?  Why do people on the streets of Detroit go hungry every day? Or worse, why are there children in the State of Michigan, nay, the United States of America, that go hungry every day? Why do corporations in the United States receive $181 billion in subsidies, but Congress will cut Medicaid benefits for 10.5 million poor and needy people?

For these hungry and needful people, tomorrow, most assuredly, is not promised.

And here I sit with everything I want and more than I need. It is time, once again, for me to reassess what I am doing to ease the burdens of those who live on the fringes of society. I need to sit down and recalculate what I donate to charities who feed the poor. I need to write some letters to government officials to advocate for immigrants being unlawfully deported. I need to reprioritize my time to volunteer to assist the elderly, infirm, and homebound.

There is much I can and should do. I plan on talking about it too. Not to brag, but to encourage everyone I know to do the same. I feel an urgency about this, because Jesus tells me that “the Promised One will come when least expected.” [Lk 12:40] If my tomorrow does not come, I do not want to be caught short, begging for one more day to get things right. I have today. Tomorrow is not promised. I need to be “on guard.”

Every Day.

© 2025 by Timothy J. Doppel

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