Our parish Advent theme is STAY AWAKE – staying awake to God in everyday life.
Stay Awake – we preachers like to give this good advice to you who listen to us.
So Advent begins! A new liturgical year begins! A new Lectionary year begins anchored in the Gospel according to Matthew.
In some ways, this Advent theme to stay awake is counterintuitive. It doesn’t mean “don’t get any sleep.” Stay awake is certainly not the advice parents give to children when it is time to go to bed. Staying awake doesn’t mean setting your alarm clock to anticipate this major religious event of the coming of the Day of the Lord. It can’t have this meaning as the Gospel tells us we do not know the day nor the hour.
To stay awake is to stay awake to the spiritual center that is within each one of us. To stay awake is to pay attention to that which matters in life, paying attention to the relationships of our lives, paying attention to our relationship with God. Within us, there is a deeper longing that never goes away. It is the longing for love. It is the longing to experience the mystery of God’s love in our life.
In the Gospel, the evangelist Matthew sharpens our awareness that if we live our daily lives actively waiting for the Lord, we will not be caught off-guard when Jesus makes his appearance. “For at the hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
We are getting better and better at protecting ourselves and our property from would-be intruders. Does your home have a burglar alarm? Do you leave lights on when you are away to give the impressions that someone is home? Our schools are becoming more and more vigilant in protecting our students from those who would harm them. Getting on an airplane is becoming more and more of a security event to provide for our safety. We spend millions, perhaps billions of dollars, for the Department of Homeland Security for the safety we seek to protect ourselves against unwelcome intruders who could come like a thief in the night.
The Advent season is our spiritual Department of Homeland Security to help us recognize the Lord in our midst coming at a time we least expect. In fact, Advent is more that a season of four weeks. Advent is a spiritual way of life lived in watchfulness to the God who comes – not just on Christmas but everyday. The best to get ready for the coming of the Lord is simply to be ready.
We are to say awake – not just for the next crisis that may or may not appear in our lives. We are to stay awake to the God who is relentlessly pursuing us in every situation and in every relationship of our lives.
We are not to bucket God’s presence to the heavens; rather, in the ups and downs of our daily life, may we experience the presence of God with us. May we have an inner resource which speaks to us the mystery of God’s love that is within each one of us.
How do we as a parish stay awake during this Advent season? In the midst of the schedule of all our parish activities and gatherings, may we be deeply conscious that we are an incarnational people. In four words: God is with us. The light of Christ shatters the darkness of our world.
Our three Scripture readings help us to live in a state of preparedness for the coming of the Lord into our lives and into our world. Today’s first reading from Isaiah contains the compelling yet elusive dream of world peace, words carved on the wall of the United Nations building in New York:
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another; nor shall they train for war again.” As we prepare for the coming of the Prince of Peace into our hearts, may we seek to end the violence and the war that is so much a part of our lives. May the Prince of Peace transform us into a people of peace.
In the second reading from the apostle Paul, we see that discipleship is not a question of our own doing; it is a matter of making room for God so that God can live in us. Paul made room in his life for Jesus, and he spent the rest of his urging others to do likewise. Being prepared for the day we don’t know means making the most of the time we do know. Our best preparation for the coming Day of the Lord is by making the most of this day in our lives.
From the Gospel, what are to stay attentive to in staying awake? How are we to keep awake while working in the field and grinding at the mill? The Gospel of Matthew helps us to situate Jesus’ decisive and definitive coming in the very midst of everyday life. Daily life’s routine events go on, ordinary people like us go about our business – in our offices and factories, schools and homes, even the malls with no hint that a critical moment is at hand. Staying awake means recognizing that ordinary life is permeated with God’s loving presence. In the words of the great poet Gerard Manley Hopkins: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God!
May we as a parish family help each other stay awake to the presence of God in our everyday life. What time is it? Time for us to get ready, stay awake, time for us to be in touch with our spiritual home, time to be aware that the joy and the hopefulness of our true home is found immersed in the mystery of God’s love.