Waiting for the Lord

“Gird your loins and light your lamps”, Jesus is telling us today. Fasten your seat belt and start the engine, would be a modern way of saying the same. These are the two attitudes the Gospel is asking us to have. First, be ready for the journey, and then turn on the lights outside, to welcome the guest who is coming. The same expression from the parable of the foolish virgins: the bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him. Come out of yourself and welcome him. He has dropped us here and he is coming to pick us up. We are a rough diamond and he expects us to become a beautiful precious stone. This is the attitude we should have: waiting for the Lord.

In our society we don’t like waiting. We want things here and now. Drive throughs, 24/7, fast food, shopping online, drones dropping our goodies. We don’t like waiting for the Lord our whole life. We want to be in control, plan our future, foresee coming situations, have everything assured. We would like to know when the Lord is coming. And today in the Gospel Jesus is telling us that he “is coming at an hour we do not expect.” It is easy to be ready for one day or for a week; it is not easy to be ready every day. When we are young and when we are old; when we are healthy and when we are sick; when the sun is shining and when a storm is raging.

Waiting doesn’t mean a passive attitude. On the contrary, our waiting for the Lord demands a very active disposition, standing up, listening, looking towards the horizon. It means to examine our conscience to see if our luggage is ready, to discover what is missing or what we have forgotten. It means to fine tune our engine, to polish the rough edges, to get rid of excess baggage, to check if the lights are working, if we have put the rubbish out, if there is enough food for the journey. It is a daily disposition of being ready for him, to follow him, to be aware of his presence.

When our Lord comes to pick us up, we need to be standing, walking towards him, our eyes fixed on our destination, eternity, to see if we can see his face. We need to be ready to open the door, because the handle is in our side. He can knock on our door at any time and he must not find us sleeping, dozing in a slumber, or away shopping. We cannot just spend our time watching movies, listening to music, playing computer games, surfing the social media, following our sport’s team. We cannot give up, sit on the side of the road and take a siesta.

Two practical things for us to be ready: first to examine our conscience, to know where we have to struggle, what we have to do to improve every day. Love is always asking the person we love what we need to change. We should ask Our Lord what he wants us to do today, to look at God’s agenda. Second thing is to be patient. It takes a long time to grow, to mature, every day a little bit, baby steps, just one thing at the time. We cannot normally tackle big things. God is very patient with us. We don’t know when he is coming, but we still have time. He’ll come when we less expect it, like a thief in the night. But if we are prepared, we’ll see him coming, just as holy people can sense when they are going to die, because they are longing for him.

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