Don't miss Him!

My reflection on the Gospel of Luke (Luke 12:39-48) today brought back memories of my childhood, and the “ice cream man”. 

During the summer months, the ice cream truck would drive through our neighborhood sometimes twice a day, with the distinctive tune playing that we could hear a block or two away if we were lucky, and if we were playing outside.  That gave us time to run back into our homes and ask Mom or Dad for some money!  Sometimes though, we were in the house or we had the TV on, and we couldn’t hear the ice cream man coming until the truck was driving past our house, and we missed it.  Every time we let him get away without stopping him, we vowed not to be caught unaware again.  Yet, time after time we were.  In fact, we missed him more often than not.  We knew he was coming, but we didn’t know exactly when, so we would frequently get so caught up in other pursuits that we lost our focus on our favorite expected visitor. 

It can be said that Jesus comes to us at an unexpected hour in two ways.

First, we know that He’ll return one day in glory to judge the living and the dead.  His Second Coming is real, and we should be aware of the fact that it could happen at any time.  Sure, it may not happen for many years, or even for many hundreds of years, but it will happen.  There’ll be one moment when the world as it is will end and the new order will be established.  Ideally, we live each and every day in anticipation of that day and that moment.  We must live in such a way that we’re always ready for that end.  Second, we must realize that Jesus does come to us, continually, by grace.  Traditionally, we speak of His two comings—His Incarnation, and His return in glory. 

But there’s a third coming we can speak of which is His coming by grace into our lives.  And this coming is quite real and should be something to which we are continually attentive.  His coming by grace requires that we be continually “prepared” to meet Him.  If we’re not prepared, we can be certain we’ll miss Him.  How do we prepare for this coming by grace?  We prepare first and foremost by fostering a daily habit of interior prayer.  An interior habit of prayer means we are, in a sense, always praying.  It means that no matter what we do each and every day, our minds and hearts are always turned toward God.  It’s like breathing.  We always do it and do it without even thinking about it.  Prayer must become just as much of a habit as breathing.  It must be central to who we are and how we live.

Jesus asks us to live our lives with the freedom that comes from knowing who we are.  That freely lived identity is formed and tested in our everyday lives.  It’s formed by the defining relationships in our lives and by the choices we make, which shape us into the persons we become.  This faithful freedom to be who we are called to be is tested by all the attractions of the world, which pull us in other directions. Usually it’s greed or lust—something just looks so attractive that we feel drawn to want it or to at least try it.  Sometimes it’s fear—anxiety, and worries about the "what ifs," steal our ability to be courageous and steadfast.  In all of these defining moments of our lives, Jesus is there coming to meet us with the offer of grace, with the gift of freedom, with the loving encounter that calls us to be our most loving and self-sacrificing selves.  He simply asks us to be ready to meet Him at the time he comes to us today.