Stand Ready!

Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 17 (16):6, 8 To you I call; for you will surely heed me, O God; turn your ear to me; hear my words. Guard me as the apple of your eye; in the shadow of your wings protect me.

Collect Almighty ever‑living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Ephesians 2:12-22; Psalm 84; Luke 12:35-38

Jesus said, Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. (Luke 12:35-38)

Stand Ready! Our Lord repeatedly exhorts his disciples to persevere steadfastly to the end. Final perseverance is the ultimate victory. It is the final blessing, for what use is it to have made a good start and when difficulty comes to fall away and be lost? But is there a key to this perseverance? Our Lord time and again gives us an answer to this. We must be ever watchful, ever ready for the coming of the Master. We must stand alert, being ready now for his coming and ensuring that were he to come at this instant he would find us at our employment. In the fourth century AD, the fortunes of the Church changed, for Constantine declared Christianity to be the religion of the Empire. But there were terrible problems ahead in the century unfolding, for the Arian heresy was about to erupt. A most impressive figure of the time was Bishop Ossius of Cordoba. He had instructed Constantine in the Christian faith, and in the thirteen years that followed, guided Constantine in matters relating to Christianity and the Church. He had suffered in the persecution under Maximinian, and had taken part in the Council of Elvira (306). In the early stages of the Arian controversy (324) he was sent to Alexandria to investigate, and it was largely as a result of his report that the Council of Nicea was summoned by the Emperor. Ossius presided, and he probably (together with two Roman priests) represented the Pope. It was probably he who introduced the critical expression of orthodoxy (homoousios — one in being, consubstantial), and he guided the proceedings to the proclamation of the orthodox faith. His whole life involved a struggle for orthodoxy. He went on after Nicea to preside at the anti-Arian council of Sardica in 343, and was banished for his support of St Athanasius in 355. But then in 356, when he was in his hundredth year, Ossius was imprisoned by the reigning Emperor and sent to present-day Belgrade. There he was put under the whip, and he, the famed Bishop Ossius so highly regarded by St Athanasius, broke. At the end of a long life of orthodoxy, he signed an Arian statement (the Second Formulary of Sirmium) — though he subsequently repudiated it. He failed at the end.

This may be taken as one instance of many, showing how the Christian must stand ever ready for service. He must not imagine that his loyalty to Christ is assured. He must be ever vigilant and reliant on the help of God, right to the very end. We may think of the Last Supper when Christ warned his disciples that he, the Shepherd, was about to be struck, and the sheep would be scattered. Simon immediately assured Christ repeatedly that he would be loyal. No, the Lord replied, for before the cock crows you will have denied me three times. Simon should have taken note and stood on strict guard, guard against fear for personal safety. He should have prayed lest he be led into temptation. Every day there are countless unnoticed comings of Christ into our life in the form of duty. John Henry Newman famously (in the Letter to the Duke of Norfolk) described the conscience of man as the “aboriginal vicar of Christ.” He meant that its voice has a divine authority. As the Church teaches (The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.1777), when he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking. Every day is filled with scarcely noticed duties, all of which are manifestations of the voice and will of God. Christ comes to us with his call and his grace in the duties of every day, duties in our family, in our work, in our neighbourhood, in our parish, everywhere we live and move. We must be ready for his coming. If we are faithful in these little things, we are disposing ourselves to be faithful in the great. History is replete with instances of Christian fidelity to the end, despite terrible sufferings at the end. What is the key to this fidelity? The key is to be faithful and watching here and now, alert and ready for the coming of Christ here and now in the ordinary day. “Jesus said, Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes” (Luke 12:35-38).

How do we prepare for the future? We prepare for the future by living well now. Let us be dressed ready for service now, keeping our lamps burning now, awaiting the slightest indication of the will of God now, detached from all that may prevent us from doing the divine will now. The critical thing is that we persevere at the end, and the way to prepare for this is to persevere now. Let us pray often for final perseverance, and for the grace to be faithful to Jesus Christ today.

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second reflection: (Luke 12:35-38)

Stand Ever Ready There are so many who spend their lives working for and thinking about only those things that will inevitably pass away. The fact is that at any moment life itself could suddenly pass away. Created reality hangs on a thread, held by God. However, the profound transience of life is not as gloomy a prospect as this because there is a far more wonderful Reality behind the one we see and of which we are a part. That wonderful Reality is Christ who is coming to meet us. What the transience and mortality of this world really means is that at a moment's notice Jesus our master could suddenly return from where he has gone. Indeed, all through our lives he is coming to us time and again in his grace — every grace is a coming of Jesus with his Holy Spirit. We ought be constantly ready to welcome his coming. His most momentous coming will be at our death.

"See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks." (Luke 12:35-36). If we are found ready and welcoming the Master, he will welcome us into the tents of eternity.

(E.J.Tyler)

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