How right was Lord Baden-Powell when he chose the ‘motto’ for his movement, better known, world-wide as ‘The Boy Scouts Movement’. As we recall, his motto was, and still is, “BE PREPARED”. Maybe, Baden-Powell, might have borrowed that motto from the Scriptures, because that was the most common advice given by Jesus to the Jews and to us all, ‘to be vigilant’. And what better way could there be to celebrate Advent with the Church. As we all know ‘Advent’ means’ to stay in preparedness, in waiting. Waiting NOT to say ‘Happy Holidays’ but to celebrate the Birth of God-man, Jesus Christ, with great joy, and therefore, “HAPPY CHRISTMAS”.
THAT, is ‘great news’! For that reason we find it written in the Gospel, because the Gospel is the Book that spreads the Good News. His Coming, the Coming of God, is the key to the History of the Old Testament, and the basic theme of its people. But this is only a ‘prelude’ to that Coming of God in which the Word was made Flesh. Each individual Christian, personally, and the Church of Christ, as a community, is a sign of the fact that God has come and is with us … tlll the end of time.
But the language used in next Sunday’s Gospel, seems to cast a dark shadow on the ‘joy’ and the ‘great news’. The reason is the lack of knowledge of such apocalyptic language used in the days of Christ and so strange to our culture and literary genre. If anyone interprets this Gospel by casting fear, anxiety and swallowing of barbiturates, will be rendering a huge disservice to Christ and His Word. What Jesus had in mind was to warn against the grave danger of losing the opportunity of salvation that the Lord offers.
There is no reason to lose our head. Yet many are those who are losing their head because they are abnormally absorbed in business, live in slumber, being blunted, in the pursuit of pleasure. One day, these will undergo a rude, dramatic awakening. These are those who lost their lives in the days of Noah. BUT, if you follow Christ’s warning … and the Boys’ Scouts motto, things will be different.
Mind you, Christ is not threatening us, He is not going to take us unawares. He does not act like a thief, and seems to want to seize the moment in which a person is unprepared. Christ is not threatening us with salvation, but it is a ‘wake-up’ call, it draws attention on the impending danger of not noticing the favorable moment of the day in which the Lord comes to involve us in his peace. We know what it means to miss favorable opportunities, even in the every-day life, or in business. So many times we have had the experience. The more surprising and unexpected they are, the more they come out of our criteria of judgment, then the easier we let them pass by.
The comings of God in our lives are always difficult to grasp because they do not conform to human wisdom; they are incompatible. They are in contrast with the current mentality. And only the one who is vigilant knows how to recognize them and is saved here and now.
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