19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Luke12: 32-48

Be Prepared!

Zucchini Bread

Growing up in the rural farmland of Southern Maryland, we never had the chance to join the Boy Scouts.  So we never specifically learned the motto – Be Prepared!  We were 4H kids through and through, learning to be good citizens and learning how to grow and cultivate potatoes and Japanese yews, for example.  I can still remember harvesting our little plot of potatoes and then the joy of ‘selling’ them to my Dad for him to sell in his country store.  After he subtracted the original cost of the seeds, fertilizer, and a few other things, my brother and I earned a whole 25 cents each.  Of course, we immediately spent it on candy/ice cream in the store!  Wow!

Granted that wasn’t much of a profit but there were plenty of lessons learned, not the least of which was all the time and effort necessary to produce a crop - the daily care and weeding, and the tilling of the soil.  It wasn’t just throwing some seeds in the ground and waiting for things to happen.  It was a lot of preparation and effort just to reach the “harvest”.  You had to prepare and be prepared (even if we weren’t Boy Scouts).

Even today as Ginger and I continue to harvest zucchini from our little garden, I still have a lot to prepare in order to turn those zucchini into zucchini bread.  Shopping for enough flour and sugar, loaf pans, eggs, oil, etc!  And then all the prep work of shredding the zucchini before I can begin mixing all the ingredients together.  And then all the after-work of cooling the loaves, wrapping them in foil and loading them all into the freezer.  FYI – to date, 20 zucchini from the garden turned into 53 loaves, along with a few other assorted zucchini creations.

And that is what Jesus is addressing in today’s Gospel – be prepared!  Be prepared for the Kingdom, for the Master.  You can’t just sit around and then suddenly rush in a flurry of activity when the Master suddenly shows up.  We need to approach every day as a day of preparation. 

Jesus makes it very clear – this is work and it is daily work.  Gird your loins!  Not an expression most of us are familiar with but very appropriate here.  Literally it means something like to hike up your pants, tighten up your belt, roll up your sleeves, and get to work!  I keep getting this image of “buckle up, buttercup, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”  Being prepared is NOT a part-time job!  Neither is being a Christian!  Face it, you never know when another zucchini will be ready for picking. 

We all have work to do TODAY and every day to prepare for the Kingdom.  So let’s get to it!  Zucchini bread doesn’t just magically appear!

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 7, 2022 at 9:25 AM

    What wonderful example you gave Deacon Frere my sister and I collected coke bottles along the road sides when younger sue had her wagon I had buckets or bags after we took them to Freddie’s little store up the street and got two cents for every bottle then like you we brought penny candy one time sue took her wagon of coke bottles up the railroad track to Ryans Store Upon reaching the back of the store Sue saw near the door more coke bottles and so she loaded them into her wagon Mr Ryan already knew about the other bottles do because our dad went to the store often he called him up Dad came and to teach Sue a lesson Sue had already gotten her candy in a brown bag she ended up even though she did not know those other coke bottles were not her had to give the bag of candy back to Mr Ryan plus the bottles she brought there Did she learn her lesson indeed she did Sge never did that again Great Homily thank you Yours in Christ 🙏🙏🙏🙏Robyn

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