Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Jesus alluded to the Passover meal, since the people were instructed to eat that meal with their loins girt. Since they needed to be prepared for a nighttime journey it would have also been appropriate to have lamps ready. The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture informs us that this "consistent with Jewish expectation that the messiah would come during the meal on Passover night"¹. The emphasis on the Exodus is stressed in a particular way in this same Gospel of Luke, when, during the Transfiguration, we read that what Jesus, Moses, and Elijah discussed was specifically about "his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem" (see Luke 9:30). Notice the close connection between the Passover meal and the crucifixion. As in the mass, both elements, sacred banquet and sacrifice, are in play. The fact is that Jesus does return during the Paschal banquet of the New Covenant, and blessed are those servants who are watchful and alert to his coming.
Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.
Can we see that, in the mass, it is Jesus himself, in the person of the priest who instructs us to recline at the table of the altar, and the proceeds to wait on us? Can we also see how easy it is to miss this hidden reality entirely? It is too easy to see the priest as just an ordinary person, and the bread and wine as common food, missing their supernatural significance entirely. We must take an active role if we are to be prepared. It is not enough to merely bring the intention of full, active, and conscious participation when we come to mass. We must already be living lives of charity (with our loins girt) and seeking heavenly wisdom (with our lamps lit) if we want to be open to everything that is available in the mass. The mass in turn provides the grace we need to live lives of charity and unites us with the one who is himself divine wisdom. This is meant to be a virtuous cycle propelling us onward and upward.
And should he come in the second or third watch
and find them prepared in this way,
blessed are those servants.
Jesus is aware that as something continues over time it becomes routine. It takes a more concerted effort to remain attentive over the course of a lifetime than it does at first. This is why he is particularly pleased with those who remain faithful over the long haul. It is not only his presence in the mass for which they prepare themselves, it is his coming for them at the end of their lives, and for all of us, at the end of the age, when he returns in glory. Therefore we must not be casual about it, as though we can be content with good enough when it comes to our relationship with the mass. It is still training for something more and greater yet to be revealed. And we want to be among the those about whom, when it happens, Jesus says "blessed are those servants".
1) Gadenz, Pablo T.. The Gospel of Luke (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture): (A Catholic Bible Commentary on the New Testament by Trusted Catholic Biblical Scholars - CCSS) (p. 244). (Function). Kindle Edition. "
and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Jesus alluded to the Passover meal, since the people were instructed to eat that meal with their loins girt. Since they needed to be prepared for a nighttime journey it would have also been appropriate to have lamps ready. The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture informs us that this "consistent with Jewish expectation that the messiah would come during the meal on Passover night"¹. The emphasis on the Exodus is stressed in a particular way in this same Gospel of Luke, when, during the Transfiguration, we read that what Jesus, Moses, and Elijah discussed was specifically about "his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem" (see Luke 9:30). Notice the close connection between the Passover meal and the crucifixion. As in the mass, both elements, sacred banquet and sacrifice, are in play. The fact is that Jesus does return during the Paschal banquet of the New Covenant, and blessed are those servants who are watchful and alert to his coming.
Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.
Can we see that, in the mass, it is Jesus himself, in the person of the priest who instructs us to recline at the table of the altar, and the proceeds to wait on us? Can we also see how easy it is to miss this hidden reality entirely? It is too easy to see the priest as just an ordinary person, and the bread and wine as common food, missing their supernatural significance entirely. We must take an active role if we are to be prepared. It is not enough to merely bring the intention of full, active, and conscious participation when we come to mass. We must already be living lives of charity (with our loins girt) and seeking heavenly wisdom (with our lamps lit) if we want to be open to everything that is available in the mass. The mass in turn provides the grace we need to live lives of charity and unites us with the one who is himself divine wisdom. This is meant to be a virtuous cycle propelling us onward and upward.
And should he come in the second or third watch
and find them prepared in this way,
blessed are those servants.
Jesus is aware that as something continues over time it becomes routine. It takes a more concerted effort to remain attentive over the course of a lifetime than it does at first. This is why he is particularly pleased with those who remain faithful over the long haul. It is not only his presence in the mass for which they prepare themselves, it is his coming for them at the end of their lives, and for all of us, at the end of the age, when he returns in glory. Therefore we must not be casual about it, as though we can be content with good enough when it comes to our relationship with the mass. It is still training for something more and greater yet to be revealed. And we want to be among the those about whom, when it happens, Jesus says "blessed are those servants".
1) Gadenz, Pablo T.. The Gospel of Luke (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture): (A Catholic Bible Commentary on the New Testament by Trusted Catholic Biblical Scholars - CCSS) (p. 244). (Function). Kindle Edition. "
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