You Also Must be Prepared"

Today's Mass Readings

There is a popular saying, attributed to St. Ignatius of Loyola, which advises Catholics to “Pray as though everything depended on God, and work as though everything depended on you.” Indeed, we even find this quote cited in the section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church which discusses the only prayer Jesus ever taught us: the Our Father (CCC, 2834). The saying is a powerful reminder that although we are saved by God’s free gift of grace through Jesus Christ, we are nevertheless responsible for cooperating with God and preparing for our salvation “with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). Hence St. Paul tells us to “pray always” (Eph. 6:18), while St. James reminds us equally that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). Today’s Gospel continues the theme of preparation. We are reminded that Christ comes like a thief in the night. What does it mean to prepare for God? How do we work out our salvation “with fear and trembling?” I suggest that we use St. Ignatius’s saying as a guide. First, we should realize that all things really do begin [and end] with God, and we should pray accordingly. Prayer is not an activity; it is a way of life. Hence, as St. Paul recommends, we should pray always, resting in the truth of today’s Psalm, which assures us that “Our help is in the name of the Lord.”

Yet prayer should not become an excuse for laziness or sloth. Neither should it blind us to the reality of our own free will. Imagine passing a hungry man in the street and saying, “I’ll pray for you.” We are assured in the story of the Good Samaritan that such a response would be lacking. As Jesus reminds us in today’s Gospel, God has made us stewards of the Earth. Stewardship demands real action [towards other people and the Earth] on behalf of our Lord and Master. It involves making wise and prudent decisions even when God seems far away, even when He seems like the absentee landlord in today’s Gospel. At times like these, when it seems that guidance is lacking, we must continue to pray as if all things depended on God. We must remain firm in the knowledge that the Lord is our help. But we must also be mature Christians and rely on the pattern of teaching we were entrusted with, as St. Paul advises us in the first reading. This teaching is the Gospel.

As good stewards, we must pray as if all things depended on God. But we must also work as if all things depended on us. As St. Theresa of Avila wrote, “Christ has…no hands, no feet on earth but yours.”

- Michael Lombardo