Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
In Exodus 12, we learn about the Passover meal and God tells the Hebrews that they are to eat their meal “like a people in flight,” with their “loins girt” and their “sandals on their feet.” Now that I’m teaching high school girls, the phrase “gird your loins” makes my classroom into a giggle factory. I ask my students to imagine themselves in gym class, ready to run the dreaded sprints. You gird your loins, I say, when you pull slightly on your gym shorts or roll up your sleeves. You’re getting ready to go and making sure nothing is holding you back!
But today’s readings are not from Exodus. We have Jesus himself telling us to “gird our loins,” making ourselves ready like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding. Blessed are servants who are ready, says Jesus. So blessed are they that the master will actually wait on them if he finds them ready! What Jesus seems to be implying is that we should always be ready for the Kingdom. This is a hard task, given my image of getting ready to run. Getting ready to go takes a lot of energy and it is often hard to sustain. What makes being ready to go tolerable is that we know it will soon be over. Once again, Jesus is asking us to do what seems impossible. Today’s gospel is another reminder that following Christ is not an easy life. Indeed, it requires that we are always at the ready, perhaps even seeking out moments to build God’s Kingdom where we can.
It’s so easy to become tired and lazy, falling asleep as we await our master’s return from the wedding. It’s his fault, we might say, because he stayed out too long! I have so much sympathy for the people in the gospels who fall asleep, the most notorious of whom would be the Apostles themselves. But really what God asks of us to that we stay alert, with our hearts and eyes open to the moments when Christ’s love is so desperately needed. Should we fall asleep, we may miss those moments altogether.
- Katherine Schmidt