BE PREPARED
Wisdom 18:6-9; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19; Luke 12:32-48
It was exam time during my second year of theology. I was studying after dinner. There was a knock on my door. It was my scripture teacher!
He said: “I know your exam is day after tomorrow. I have a blood test in the morning, and I will reach late for your timeslot. I am out tomorrow. Can you come for your exam earlier?” Mine was the first slot. I asked: “Earlier? When?” He said: “Come now!”
Now! I wanted some time to dress appropriately and to glance through my notes. My teacher said: “Come as you are!” I had no choice but to close my door… and go for the test!
All of us will have to face a much more important—and dead-cert—test at the end of our lives.
We do not know when Jesus—the “teacher”—will call us for the test; he tells us it will be “on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour.” In this Sunday’s gospel, through the parable of the vigilant servants and the parable of the faithful and prudent steward, Jesus advises his “little flock” to be prepared for this final test.
An attitude that will help us be prepared is commitment to the task/ mission God has entrusted to us. Jesus calls his disciples to be “vigilant servants” (prepared for vigorous activity and do whatever their master has asked them to do) and “faithful and prudent stewards” (loyally and responsibly administer their owner’s assets and care for those who are in their charge). When we do this, we are always ready for the teacher, and we need not fear the final test.
There is another—more important—reason for being unafraid: Jesus tells us that we are a flock loved by the Father, chosen and intended for the kingdom.
Like Abraham—our father in faith—we must trust God’s providence which sustains us always and in unexpected ways. Abraham believed that God would fulfil the promise of land and the promise of progeny. In faith, he looked beyond the present moment to a future that is held in God’s hands.
Am I prepared for the final test? Am I a “faithful-prudent-vigilant steward” committed to my God-entrusted mission? Do I trust in divine providence?
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