Stay awake! Be prepared. Who could have anticipated these times? But I’m trying to prepare anyway. As I’m writing this, school starts next week. As you’re reading it, theoretically, school started last week. (We write about two weeks ahead of the readings’ date). So I’m trying to prepare for any eventuality. I am writing my course schedule as if we will be meeting in class, because that’s the plan. But I am trying to be prepared for students who cannot come to class in case of illness or exposure. And I’m trying to be prepared in case we end up all online, like we did last semester with no advanced preparation. I just don’t know for sure what will happen. But I want to be ready for what does.

We never know for sure what will happen, but we try to be ready for whatever does. In the gospel, Jesus says we need to be prepared. We don’t know when, but we need to be ready. If the homeowner knew the burglars were going to break in, he would stay awake and be ready to protect his house. If the steward knew when the master was coming home, he would make sure to have supper ready, or at least he wouldn’t be partying and ignoring his duties. Even if the master is late, the steward shouldn’t let down his guard. The thousands of people who have died from COVID didn’t expect that would happen. They couldn’t have guessed last year that there would be a deadly pandemic now. They certainly didn’t plan on it, but we hope they had or got their affairs in order. Now we know more about the situation and how to react better. Our school plan is all masks all the time, social distance everywhere, wipe down everything. We are preparing how to stay safe, how to limit exposure, how to prevent contamination. Knowing that there is potential danger now, we can make the preparations to stay safe and healthy.

We don’t know the hour. We don’t know the future. As I’m writing this now, I don’t know for sure if I’ll be in class or remote, or what. But I want to be prepared for what happens. When it’s my time, I want to be ready for the journey.