October 22, 2013

Luke 12: 35-38

Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved http://www.usccb.org/bible/approved-translations

Blessed Vigilance

One of the things you often get asked to do as a Jesuit scholastic is to participate in the weddings of friends and family. A few weeks ago, my friend asked me to read at his wedding in Philadelphia.  When we were talking about his wedding, what struck me is all of the details that go into a wedding: lists of stuff.  There are two ways to look at these details.  The first is to see them as a list of tasks, that if they are not completed the wedding is a failure.  Often this is how we look at life, not just weddings.  The fear of something going wrong is at the heart of this perspective, even in the preparation of such a joyous event.

But it seems to me that there is another way to look at a wedding, and also to approach the way we live our lives: by allowing our preparations, our vigilance to be a blessing to those we are preparing for.  As shocked as I was at all of the details needed for his wedding, my friend kept reminding me that he and his fiancée (now wife) prepared for their wedding so that they could celebrate more deeply with their loved ones.

Some of the happiest moments in the Gospels take place when Jesus is at a wedding.  Being at my friend’s wedding reminded me that I want to live my life with the same kind of blessed vigilance that he and his wife had, and that Jesus speaks about in today’s Gospel.

—Adam DeLeon, S.J. is a Jesuit scholastic studying theology in preparation for ordination at Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley CA.

Prayer

Lord, you are knocking on our door. You beckon us toward hope, promise, and eternal surprise of astonishing joy. We fully commit all our thoughts and actions to you. And pray for gratitude as we witness the sunrises and sunsets of our life.

—The Jesuit Prayer Team