REFLECTIONS TODAY
The expression “gird your loins” (v 35) derives from practical purpose based on the ancients’ clothing. As pants or shorts were not in use in those days, tunics would be cumbersome to walk in or run around.
This was resolved by bringing up the garment and tying it so that the legs would be free to move about. This is what is meant by girding one’s loin, and this was done to prepare for battle.
This expression therefore commands us to prepare for spiritual combat, as we make ready for the coming of the Lord. While he is yet to manifest his second coming, we definitely would have to face many spiritual battles. Part of the preparation is our mobility and dexterity in deflecting the wiles of the devil.
It involves our capacity to launch our weapons of goodness to contain and annihilate the tides of malice in our midst. Let us therefore gird our loins and engage in battle for the Lord!
First Reading • Eph 2:12-22
Brothers and sisters: You were at that time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the Blood of Christ.
For He is our peace, He made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his Flesh, abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile both with God, in one Body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Gospel • Luke 12:35-38
Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.”
Source: “366 Days with the Lord 2024,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.