Am I Ready?

The start of Advent and the Mass readings during Advent grabbed my attention this year. They are on the virtue of “readiness.”

As I age, more and more of my musings (and consequent writing) about God and my Catholic Faith are in the framework of my life’s experiences. Many of my essays over the last several years are in the context of personal experience.  And readiness resonated with me in light of past experiences.

Readiness is a personal attribute that crosses many dimensions. For example, within an educational setting there is having the informational readiness for taking exams.

Dimensions of readiness

For years, my job was to train police officers and soldiers to have the physical readiness (physical fitness) to meet the physical demands of their respective job duties. For police officers it is to be ready to function as a first responder in emergency situations. They have to be ready to go from a sedentary position to maximum effort in seconds whether pursuing a suspect or pulling an unconscious person out of a burning vehicle.

Readiness for soldiers is having the physical readiness to sustain the endurance of protracted combat under often miserable environmental conditions. Physical readiness is critical for survival to meet the mission demands.  Soldiers must not let their team down and they must be able to “keep up.” Physical readiness is also key factor for survival if wounded or injured.

There are many descriptors of what it means to have “readiness”. One is always being prepared. But it is also being in a state of constant vigilance, to be on the watch for needed action. It involves ongoing training and having the commitment and discipline to practice and maintain that readiness.

Advent faith-based readiness

Many Advent Mass readings and homilies speak to our personal faith readiness in two dimensions. The first is the anticipation of the coming of the Lord in the birth of Jesus. It is an anticipation of the Christmas event. As with the Jews of his time, we are waiting for the Messiah.

Many of the Mass readings (such as those from the prophet Isaiah) allude to this anticipation. All the various activities (faith-based, family, and even cultural) surrounding the coming Christmas event aid us to be ready for the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

The second Advent readiness dimension alludes to end times and Jesus second coming.

On the first Sunday in Advent, the Gospel reading was from Mark, 13:32-37. Jesus speaks to the end times and the second coming of the Son of Man. He tells the parable about faithful servants needing to be watchful for the return of the master from a journey. In verse 37, he says “What I say to you I say to all: Watch!”

There are many other Scriptural passages with comparable “readiness” references. A similar parable is repeated in Luke 12:35-40.  Jesus cautions the master’s servants to be watchful for his return from the wedding feast. In verse 40, he says. “You also must be prepared; for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

The End Times

Jesus speaks of end times and directly to the necessity of watchfulness in Matthew 24:36-44. He states in verse 42 “Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” And, in verse 44, “So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of man will come”.

Jesus again highlights the importance of staying alert in the parable about the kingdom of heaven. He uses the example of the foolish bridesmaids who didn’t bring oil for their lamps and who missed out on the wedding feast (Matthew 25:1-13). In verse 13, he says “Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour”.

Finally, in Luke 21:34-36 Jesus exhorts us to be always be on guard. He says in verse 36 “Be vigilant at all times, and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Vigilance, preparedness, watchfulness, wakefulness are all used to describe a state of “readiness’ for the second coming of the Lord.

Ongoing spiritual readiness

So Advent is about the two “anticipation” dimensions of readiness. There are, however, other dimensions relevant to our faith journey.

There is the ongoing readiness or openness to receiving the Gospel through reading and listening to Scripture and Mass homilies. It is an act of being awake to hear God’s Word.

There is the necessary readiness to receive Christ in the Eucharist. This involves being prepared for repentance through regular confession and having a reverence mindset before receiving Communion.

At another level, there is the readiness to observe the faith by regular mass attendance and following the liturgical calendar of feasts and events. There is the associated readiness to practice the Faith by being alert to opportunities to practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

There is also a special readiness required to enter into prayer. We need to prepare ourselves to talk to God. It involves finding a place, a posture, and a purpose.

And in this day and age, we need to be ready to defend the Faith. Whether in our conversations, writing or speaking, we need to “stand up” for our beliefs in an increasingly hostile, secular culture.

Finally, I would add that we also need to be prepared to defend life from conception to natural death.

In conclusion, Paul succinctly summarizes the many dimensions of readiness in 1 Corinthians 16:13:

“Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong.”