During my five years in the major seminary, we did a lot of prayerful singing—especially Gregorian chant in Latin.
For three of my seminary summer vacations I worked in the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s camp where five times each summer busloads of inner-city kids came for a twelve-day vacation.
They would hear some religious songs, not chant and easy to understand. One that still sticks in my memory was a spiritual; it has different versions, but here’s some of what I remember:
Did the good book say that Cain killed Abel? Yes, good Lord!
Hit him on the head with a leg of the table! Yes, good Lord!
Daniel in the lion’s den said unto those colored men,
Get your long white robe and starry crown and be ready when the great day comes.
Oh, Lord, I’m ready, indeed I’m ready.
Oh, good Lord, I’ll be ready when the great day comes!
Forget the leg of the table, but don’t forget to be ready when the great day comes!
And, don’t overlook the part about being dressed in a long white robe and starry crown. It means to be spiritually clean and spotless with your mind and heart fixed on the promised great and beautiful things yet beyond our present experience.
It’s sort of like Latin chant: beautiful thoughts in a foreign (symbolic) language that need translation to be fully understood!
The great day is the great paradox of our faith. The great day is when we definitively totally surrender our mind and heart and life to the loving God who made us and guided us all our life long.
Like the team ready to run onto the field responding to their coach’s last-minute charge, I’m ready, indeed I’m ready.
A whole lifetime may seem to be a bit much for preparation and practice for the great day, but compared to eternity it’s but a drop in the bucket.
The ultimate purpose of our lives isn’t to endlessly drill and practice until we have no strength left to continue. Our ultimate purpose is to get ready and set to go on to that fullness of life and love that we were taught about, yearned for, and sacrificed for.
When the moment comes, without hesitation, we charge onto the field of eternity, fired up in faith and responding in our hearts as we often did in our lives: Oh, Lord, I’m ready, indeed I’m ready.
Don’t let any of this scare you! It may be that you’re so involved and occupied by your daily duties, tasks, and demands that all this may seem imaginative and remote.
It’s a certitude that this present stage of the life of each one of us has an ending, but it’s also a certitude in faith that another, better stage of life awaits us.
We’ve heard tales about it, predictions and promises and imaginative descriptions about it, but we haven’t played in the great game yet; we’ve only been practicing as we were coached and taught.
We were coached and taught well, maybe not perfectly, but well enough. No need to fear the field if you’re ready and set to go.
And, of course, the God who made you, loved you, and guided you all life-long is the one and the same God who calls each of us to a fullness of life beyond our imaging and experience.
So, don’t forget or fear to get your long white robe and starry crown and be ready when the great day comes.
19 February 2023