Today’s Liturgy of the Word speaks to us about being ready. And now’s as good a time for that as any, especially since we are getting so close to the end of the liturgical year. The liturgical year ends on the feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King of the Universe, which this year is celebrated on November 26th. What we are going to start noticing in the readings from now until then is a decided interest in how all of time will be wrapping up. Theologians call that “eschatology,” which is the theology about the end times.
Now, to be clear, we don’t know when the end of time will actually happen. God in his providence keeps the big picture on that to himself, which I think is good, or we would be constantly worried about it. But today’s Liturgy of the Word tells us that we can’t be complacent either. We have to have our spiritual houses in order lest the master return and find us slacking off and give his blessings to more diligent servants.
It’s easy to slack off on our spiritual service when things are going well. The urgency to our prayer wanes and we’re easily distracted. But even when things aren’t going so well, we can be bogged down in the mire of whatever we’re dealing with and forget to attend to the faith that sees us through. So the issue is being prepared: girding our loins and lighting our lamps, so that when the Master returns, we’re ready to go.
For us this might mean a return trip to the Sacrament of Penance if it’s been a while, or perhaps signing up for the Bible Study if we have been meaning to do that, or even just taking the Bible down off the shelf and reading a few verses each night before bed. Whatever we haven’t been doing, whether it’s Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament or a renewed dedication to the Holy Rosary, it’s time we got on it. It might even mean taking time out of our busy schedules to be of service to those in need.
God wants to take us with him and he’s very patient, but we have to do our part. We have to be diligent and ready. We have to be eager to say with the Psalmist, “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will.”