Readiness
“Stay awake, because you do not know the day when your Master is coming.” (Matthew 24:42)
My favorite pope is John XXIII. Born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli in 1881 to a family of peasant farmers in Bergamo, Italy, third of thirteen children, he became pope in 1958 following the death of Pius XII. I was just thirteen at the time and remember him at his installation ceremony, first to be televised worldwide, an affable, jovial, rolly polly, little man with a gleam in his eye and infectious smile, a sharp contrast to the aloof and austere looking Pius XII, with whom I had grown up. On black and white small screened TV in his elaborate papal regalia, John looked to me miscast in the role of Supreme Pontiff; more suited perhaps for the role of department store Santa Claus!
Elected at age 76 to be a “caretaker pope,” he nonetheless turned out to be quite an activist one instead, much to the chagrin of the ultra conservative curia, beginning to shake things up at the Vatican from the very beginning. Early on he declared he had no intention of being a prince surrounded by signs of outward power, but a “priest, father and shepherd.” He proved to be true to his word. That Christmas, for example, he revived the custom, which had lapsed since the occupation of Rome in 1870, of visiting inmates at Regina Coeli Prison (where he recalled the jailing of one of his relatives) and patients at Gemelli Polyclinic, one of the local hospitals. He also made frequent appearances in the parishes of his diocese in Rome, as well as at other hospitals, convalescent homes for the elderly and educational and charitable institutions. On Holy Thursday 1959 he washed the feet of selected members of his congregation, and on Good Friday he walked in the procession of the cross.
John XXIII really shook things up in 1962 when he convened the Second Vatican Council, forcing the institutional Church for the first time to begin coming to terms with the modern world, something his predecessor popes had been battling since the French Revolution. Pope John spoke eloquently of the need for aggiornamento, bringing things up-to-date. The metaphor he employed was that of a closed window suddenly thrust open “to let some fresh air in.” We are not born to be “museum keepers,” he once said, “but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life.”
Vatican II set the Church on a whole new pastoral course, emphasizing the role of the laity, the collegiality of bishops, the authentic faith and goodness of non-Catholic Christians and non-Christians alike, and the dignity of all human beings. “It is not that the gospel has changed,” he said, “it is that we have begun to understand it better.”
When John XXIII died on the evening of June 3, 1963, the whole world reacted with profound sorrow, so deeply had he touched the hearts of the entire human community during his brief four plus year pontificate. Even the Union Jack was lowered to half-mast in the bitterly divided city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Known affectionately as "Good Pope John" and "most loved Pope in history," on September 3, 2000, John XXIII was declared "Blessed" by John Paul II, the next to last step on the road to sainthood. Following his beatification, his body was moved from its original burial place in the grottoes below St Peter’s to the Altar of St Jerome on the main level of the Basilica where it is now displayed behind glass for veneration of the faithful. It was in front of that altar a few short weeks ago that Gloria and I found ourselves during our trip to Rome.
As I stood quietly with Gloria and other pilgrims before the body of my favorite pope, I remembered what he said on his deathbed almost 50 years ago: “My bags are packed and I am ready, very ready, to go.”
Readiness is a primary theme of Advent which begins today. Readiness to meet the new born Christ at Christmas, his first coming into human history; readiness to meet the triumphant Christ when he returns at the end of time, the second coming; and readiness to meet the risen Christ as he enters our lives each day… this side of eternity.
In today’s gospel from Matthew, Jesus exhorts us to “Stay awake, because you do not know the day when your Master is coming.” Therefore, he says, “You must stand ready because the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” And, of course, that is the gospel truth because you and I don’t know when the end will come, either our own personal end or humanity’s.
A problem with this gospel lesson is that it calls for readiness without telling us how to get ready. What precisely must we do? The answer is found at the end of this apocalyptic section of Matthew (25:31-46), when Jesus says that feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting the prisoner are activities that will be credited to us as if we had done them for Christ himself. We get ready for what is to come, in other words, by living what we believe now.
Non-Christians look to us to see whether our faith is genuine; whether it has touched our lives in a meaningful way. They want to know, in short, whether we practice what we preach. A convert was once asked what prompted her conversion. She replied very tersely, "A Christian living on my block found time to take care of me when I was ill." Mahatma Gandhi expressed it this way: “If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ…., all of India would be Christian today.”
19th century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard summed it up beautifully in a concise prayer. “O Lord Jesus Christ, save us from the error of wishing to admire you instead of being willing to follow and resemble you.”
That’s how my favorite pope lived his life, following and resembling Christ every day. That’s why he was able to say on his deathbed: “My bags are packed and I am ready, very ready, to go.” Not a bad way to face eternity, wouldn’t you say?
Anthony J. Sciolino
Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:34-44
First Sunday of Advent. December 2, 2007. (Cycle A)