Are you ready for God's coming in your life?  Are you awake today to the possibility of God's new advent in your world?

Today we celebrate the feast of a giant in Christian history, Gregory Magnus, Gregory the Great, a Doctor of the Church, composer, theologian, reformer, advocate of the poor, and pastoral bishop par excellence.  What made him "great" was not so much his tremendous scholastic accomplishments, nor his stupendous governance of the Church in a tumultuous period of Christian history, but his ability to be ready for God's coming in every circumstance.

The name "Gregory," from the Greek word, "gregoréo," which means "to be awake, to be alert, to be ready," is an apropos name for a Christian.  Jesus was always reminding his disciples to "be ready" for the Kingdom of God, like it was going to present itself at any moment if they would just open their eyes.  I think of the famous Boy Scout motto, "Be prepared."  The question that usually follows is "Be prepared for what?"

The reading from 1 Thessalonians, probably the oldest book of the New Testament, tells us what we are preparing for, and what it means to be ready.  The earliest Christians were distraught when Jesus, having ascended to the Father, did not return for them immediately.  They were beginning to fear He might not be back before some of them died.  For them, like us, death was a palpable fear, the greatest test of their faith.  Paul's instructions to them were "Be ready!  Stand firm!  Do not lose hope!"  Paul was convinced that the Lord was coming back for them any moment.  God's advent was imminent.  When that coming happens, Paul thought, we will all be joined to the Lord eternally.  That is what we are waiting for, and hoping for with all our heart.  "Thenceforth, we shall be with the Lord unceasingly.  Console one another with this message."

The problem is that all too often we blind ourselves to the presence of God among us.  I am as guilty as anyone of this intentional blindness.  I have to remind myself constantly to look for God with new eyes, and to seek God in the ordinary, in what is right before me, behind me, and at my side.  God comes to us as a piece of bread, or as a broken, dying person, or as a magnificent newborn.  God makes a sacrament of our whole world!  As a teacher, I am becoming more and more aware of God's presence in my students, and maybe that is why I smile a lot in class.  However, there are times when I am absolutely sure that God cannot be present in an apathetic student, or in a friend who talks too much, or in a family member whose habits annoy me, or in someone I perceive as an ideological "enemy."

God came to Nazareth in the person of Jesus, and his relatives and neighbors did not recognize Him.  They were indignant.  "Is not this Joseph's son?" they asked.  They applauded Jesus for telling them that God sent Him to announce good news, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim a jubilee time, but then they turned on Him at the suggestion that God's plan might be extended to others, not of their tribe.  They tried to kill him.  They were not ready for someone new, someone life-giving and filled with hope.  They missed God's presence in Jesus.  Ironically, after they attempted to hurl Him over a cliff, "He went straight through their midst and walked away."

How slow we are to perceive and understand that God comes to us in the everyday, ordinary mess and minutia of our lives.  Am I ready for God's coming today?  Am I ready to place my hope in things unseen?  Ready or not, God is coming, and probably in some ways I would least expect.  I want to be ready.

St. Gregory, paradigm of readiness for God, pray for us!