"Be watchful! Be alert!"
Is
63: 16b – 17; 64: 1,3b-8
1
Cor 1:3-9
Mk
13: 33-37
We
say that patience is a virtue and indeed it is.
Yet, how often do we pray for an increase in patience? It’s the one prayer that God always answers
because he takes his time about it and in the process teaches us to be patient.
In fact, in the waiting he has already answered us. The only way to learn patience is to be
patient.
Yet,
it isn’t exactly a popular American virtue.
We are not a patient people are we?
Have you driven on the highway recently or found another car behind you
about three inches from your rear bumper at 70 miles an hour urging you to get
out of the way? Have you recently waited
in line to buy something and found yourself feeling anxious because the person
in front of you took another 20 seconds longer than you expected? We are not a
patient people which all the more emphasizes for us the value of this season,
brief as it is this year, only three weeks, but with long time value.
Our
readings this Sunday and in particular the first reading from Isaiah, the
ancient prophet of Israel hundreds of years before the coming of Jesus, prays
as he patiently waits: “Why do you let us
wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?
Return for the sake of your servants . . . Oh, that you would rend the heavens
and come down. . .” It sounds like a cry of desperation – Why are you
taking so long to come? Look at the mess we are in. Tear open the skies and
come to help us!
Writing
about 600 years before the coming of Jesus that hope was already expressed
among the people; that God would one day “rend” the heavens and come down to
save them. Bishop Robert Barron, the
popular evangelist of our day, comments about the similarity between that hope
and that of being kidnapped, a rather common experience in the time of
Jesus. One would never travel outside
their town alone, along the roads, especially at night; only in caravans or in
groups.
Still,
to be kidnapped, even held for ransom, is to find oneself in a condition of
desperation. You long for freedom,
you’re in an unfamiliar place and a foreign land, you don’t know what your
future will be, you see the danger before you and you don’t know what the
ultimate intention of your captors will be.
You want to go home. You long for freedom, for safety, and for a
savior. That is something like what
Isaiah pleads for and the hope kept alive for centuries, knowing that at some
time and place a savior will come to set you free.
At
the closing of our Isaiah passage, we hear a surrender to the confidence that
all will be right with God: “O Lord, you
are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your
hands.” An assurance built upon faith that God will be and ever is true to
his promises.
So
what are we to do about Advent which is all about patiently waiting for the
coming of the Lord? Our Jewish brothers
and sisters kept the hope of the coming Messiah alive for hundreds of years and
passed that hope down generation to generation. For us, we know that the Lord
has already come. In physical time and
in a geographical place a child was born who we believe is the answer to that
desperate plea. The prayer has been
answered and the Savior has come to set us free; to take us home. So we live on the other side of that event. Yet, we are still in a mode of patience for
him to come again.
So,
Advent, in my estimation, is the Church’s gift to us in this hectic and
impatient modern world which encourages instant gratification to step back and
take our time. It offers us the
opportunity to let go of expectations about instant everything and to re-order
our priorities both about our Christian life and how we live it. God does not look at time the way we humans
do so if we assume that God thinks as we do we would be short sighted indeed.
Yet,
the words of the Gospel from Mark this Sunday offer us a wakeup call: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when
the time will come . . . whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at
cockcrow, or in the morning.” Let’s
remember that the great events of our salvation happened at evening, midnight,
cockcrow and the morning hours. The Last
Supper in evening darkness, the secret nighttime capture of Jesus, his trial
before Pilate and his crucifixion in early morning. Through these events of
death Jesus became a new light for the world.
It was his resurrection that was discovered by the empty tomb at dawn by
the women who went to the tomb. So, be watchful for what has happened, what it
now means for us, and how we can live in daylight and not under cover of
darkness.
Where
is the Lord NOW for us? How can we be
busy about the things we need to do in the works of charity and the living of
our sacramental faith, particularly the Holy Eucharist and prayer? We don’t
need to worry about when he is coming if he finds us doing what he has called
us to do.
So,
due to Christmas being on a Monday, we have about three weeks of grace offered
to us this year to reflect on the profound implications of God’s entry into
human history, which is the meaning of the Christmas season. We are offered the
grace to live in trust before a God who invites us to slow down and ponder for
a moment what this means for me personally and for humanity in general.
Let’s
try living in the present moment rather than anticipating the future. “Be
watchful” the Gospel reminds us as we begin this season. Be watchful for God’s presence in our daily
life. If we live in anticipation of what
our next thing is, we miss the God who speaks to us NOW. So, this can be a season of mindfulness – to pay
attention to and to live in the present moment as fully as we can.
Practice
patience. Intentionally carve out some
time to pray with the scriptures or the Sunday readings, slowly and
prayerfully. How is God present to you
in prayer? We are rarely deliberately mindful of our precious time.
If
you haven’t done so already, delay sending Christmas cards until at least the
middle of December. Pray for the people
on your list of family and friends who will receive those cards.
Dress
your home somewhere in the violet color of Advent. Christmas tree up already? Don’t turn on the
lights for two weeks and just wait.
Instead, light a candle each week in anticipation of the Lord’s coming.
Spend
some time with a frail loved one who moves slowly and whose daily life is far
less “exciting” than yours.
As
we remember Christ’s coming 2,000 years ago, take some time to find him today.
Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,
the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ
with righteous deeds at his coming,
so that, gathered at his right hand,
they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
(Opening collect of Mass)
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