“Be Prepared” by Brian Flanagan, Fiat Ventures
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
I was pretty involved in Boy Scouts growing up, and as every self-respecting Boy Scout knows, the scout motto is “Be Prepared.” Prepared for what? That’s the point! You never know what’s going to happen.
One weekend my troop was on a camping trip, and one of our activities on Saturday involved lashing giant poles together to make catapults, which we would later use to launch water balloons as far as we could across the field. It was a hot day in April, and after working on our catapults in the sun all afternoon, we plodded along back to our campsite exhausted and soaked from the water balloons. We had a nice evening sitting around the fire, and finally went to bed after a great day.
We awoke to the sound of our tents being shaken by our scoutmaster. “Rise and shine guys, you’re not going to believe this!” I unzipped the tent flap, stuck my head out, and saw our campsite covered in snow! Needless to say, we weren’t exactly prepared for that. We decided to scrap our plans for breakfast and head home as quickly as possible. We put on our light jackets and preceded to stuff our frozen tents into big black garbage bags just to get them home quickly, all without gloves on our poor little fingers. I’ve taken the motto “Be Prepared” to the extreme since then. I always over-pack and over-plan. But I’m rarely the person caught off guard when the unexpected happens.
Jesus talks about being prepared in the Gospel this week, for we “know neither the day nor the hour” that we’ll encounter him (whether at the end of our life, at the end of time, or in all the little ways we encounter him throughout the day). In the parable, the ten virgins who were prepared with oil for their lamps were able to go out and meet the bridegroom. But the ones who weren’t prepared were out of luck.
So how do we prepare to encounter Jesus? I once heard a story of a saint who was asked that very question. He and his friend were at the billiards hall playing pool, and his friend asked him, “If you knew that Jesus was coming back in 5 minutes, what would you do right now?” The saint lined up his shot, said, “I’d continue playing pool,” and put the eight ball in the corner pocket. This wasn’t dismissing the question or ignoring the reality of Jesus’ second coming, but the saint was acknowledging that he was living his life in such a way that he’d be happy to stand before Jesus just as he was, because he was ready to meet him.
We should prepare to encounter Jesus by living in such a way that we’re always ready to meet him. We should pray every day, love everyone around us in concrete ways, and strive to grow in virtue and holiness, and when we sin, to get to confession and start fresh with a clean slate.
It’s also important to remember that Jesus isn’t trying to catch us off guard like on the show Undercover Boss, where a senior executive works undercover to see how things are really run day to day in the company. Jesus wants us to be prepared to meet him! He’d love nothing more than for us to be ready, like the virgins who were prepared with the oil for their lamps. So fill your lamps with oil, always pack gloves, and BE PREPARED!
