Let Us Pray He Finds Us Ready

The following is a reflection for the Second Sunday in Advent

In my first year of college, I took a class dedicated to the history of the civil war, and more specifically to the history of Virginia during the civil war. I had known a lot of the information from US history in high school, but there were definitely some interesting additions that I hadn’t known, especially about Virginia, or documents that I hadn’t yet read. I am a big history guy so it was great being able to take a 1 credit class during my first semester to be introduced into the history department. Why the civil war was fought will vary depending on who you talk to you, where they are from, and what interpretation of history they subscribe to, very much like philosophy. But generally, the South fought to keep slavery instituted, which they considered to be a cause for states rights. The North fought firstly to preserve the union, although there were some sentiments about ending slavery that motivated some soldiers and congressmen. But the vast majority of motives behind the civil war came from either preserving states rights, the South, or preserving the union, the North. In my study of the civil war throughout different schooling one person always came up: John C. Calhoun. He is most famous for warning that if the southern right to slavery wasn’t guaranteed by congress and the presidency, then the civil war would be inevitable. Let’s historically analyze this claim for a minute. There are really two warnings we can see here. We can see the warning that he literally meant to give, which is that if slavery is guaranteed, the southerners would, without a doubt, go to war. The second warning is an indirect one and is seen in his comment about the war being inevitable. It is a warning that the south, and similarly the north, had no plans of compromising their beliefs or ideals, and therefore, truly Calhoun was making a blatant claim: the American Civil War was inevitable. 

But rather than trying to realize this, American politicians continued on. Compromise after compromise, many politicians avoided the reality of the civil war and rather focused on trying to create temporary common ground. But as we know now, none of this worked and the civil war happened. But it is the warning signs like that of Calhouns that need focusing on. History is filled with warning signs. World War I was foreseen, maybe not on the large scale that it occurred, but people knew European conflict was to come, but still sought to avoid the reality. Calhoun makes it clear the Civil War is inevitable but politicians choose to not consider it a reality. Isn’t that really what we hear in the Gospel today? John makes it clear – Someone greater is coming than he is. Someone that will baptize with the Holy Spirit, someone who will separate the sheeps from the goats. John is urging repentance, but yet so many ignore him. So many are not ready for the arrival of Jesus, they do not accept the warnings, and therefore reject him. The Pharisees reject Him,  many people reject Him. Why? It is because they weren’t ready for his radical message, which could be summarized into a simple statement: leave everything and follow me. They weren’t ready because they didn’t heed John’s advice, the warning he gave them to be ready for the Messiah that is coming. 

I will never forget in high school, during my freshman year, I had to take geometry. I am pretty good at most math, but geometry was never my strong suit, and I really had to put a lot of work into that class to do well. And at some points in the beginning of the year I started to give up on geometry and memorizing all the rules because I truly didn’t understand it all. And I remember walking into one quiz and realizing that I was truly in no way prepared for it. I took the quiz and literally guessed on 60% of the quiz, since it was only 5 questions. Got my score back and I got  a 3 out of 5. It was humbling since I hadn’t really ever gotten that bad of a score. And it brought about a lot of introspection for me in that class. I realized that my teacher was pretty fair and often told us exactly what would be on the assessments, so I couldn’t blame him. He gave the class clear warnings. But I felt the material was too hard, that it was unreasonable, and in some ways absurd, so I gave up. I ignored the warnings and then I got to the quiz and I wasn’t prepared. 

And in some ways, this is a really good analogy for our understanding of Jesus Christ and coming to us, because that is really what Advent is meant for: to remind us that Jesus will return and we are to live lives worthy of returning to our Almighty creator. For the Jews of the time of Jesus, they had John the Baptist telling them that Christ is coming and that He can not be ignored. He is coming and the people need to understand how great He truly will be and how they need to prepare for Him. But we have something better than John the Baptist warning us, in 2023. We have Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ makes it clear to us that He will come again and that is when he will separate the sheets from the goats. That is when he will cast down the mighty from their throws and lift up the lowly. And it is because of this that we are meant to live a life that is worthy of returning to Him. We are meant to heed his warnings. We are meant to listen to him and take his advice. We are meant to clothe the naked, visit the poor and disabled, and feed the hungry. Why? Because Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us to. He gives us a clear warning that his glorious second coming is inevitable, and that everyone must prepare for it. 

But so often we live in a society where people choose to ignore the reality of His existence as God and ignore the reality of His second coming. But we cannot. As Catholics we have been given too much instruction from God Himself to be ready. To stay awake and watch. We can’t be like the civil war politicians and we can’t be like stupid me who didn’t want to study for geometry because it was too hard. Yes, following Jesus is hard at times. Sometimes the “requirements” can seem like a lot. But if God is telling us to do them, there must be a literal reason. And He made it clear we should, through the many warnings. 

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. Let us pray He finds us ready.