Mark 13:33-37
Joan and I just got back from a brief visit to Front Royal, where we attended a function at Christendom College and visited with our children and grandchildren that live there. On the way down, there was a massive accident on US 81, involving a tractor trailer and several cars. We didn’t move for two hours. Our Google GPS suggested an alternative route, so when we got to the turnoff, we ventured off on a two lane road which curved dramatically. Apparently other people had Google GPS as well, so we were accompanied by many cars in both directions, many of whom did not know how to dim their lights. After about a half hour of driving in the dark under these conditions, I was about as alert and watchful as I could get, and rapidly approaching exhaustion. We finally got back on the highway where traffic had started to move, and arrived at my son’s house about three hours later than we had anticipated.
Be Watchful! Be Alert! You do not know when the time will come!. This passage from Mark always bothers me. Of course when you read on Jesus is describing how it will be at the end of time, when he returns. The whole Gospel is even more troublesome then. Two thousand years have gone by and he hasn’t returned. My whole life is much closer to the end than the beginning, and I’m still not quite sure what Jesus means.
I suppose there is nothing we can do to change the end of the world, or for that matter the end of our lives. Both are inevitable. And there’s no way we can tell when this moment is going to come. So do I ever let my guard down? Do I ever close my eyes and sleep? In practical terms none of us lives so that we are always on the alert; I don’t think even the Pope lives that way.
But it’s true. The best way to deal with the unexpected is to expect it. And that’s what advent is really about. It’s to recenter us, to remind us that just as Christ came two thousand years ago, he will come again, and if we are to believe the various prophecies in the New Testament -- not only those of Jesus, but those in the epistles and in the Book of Revelation, that time will upend everything we thought was permanent and unchangeable.
So how do we prepare? As individuals, as Catholics, we know that at the minimum we want to stay in the state of grace, which means using the sacraments of the Church, following a personal plan of spiritual advancement, maybe getting a spiritual director to help us see what we might be missing. When I was very young Advent was a kind of shortened lent. The best part for us kids was that we made a promise to give something up so that we would have something to give the Christ Child for Christmas. It’s kind of silly, I know, but I remember how, as Christmas approached, I would wonder if he would like what I had to offer -- because usually I hadn’t tried too hard, and there were a few times when the temptation to eat candy outweighed my religious fervor. And I think that is the attitude of the great saints as well. Did I do enough Lord, with the life you gave me? Did I love enough, did I make an effort to spread your gospel among those I loved? What can I show you for all you have given me?
But there’s more. Is Jesus asking us to live in a constant state of expectation? I’m not even sure that’s healthy. But maybe he gives us a clue when he describes the household. Each servant with his own work, and a gatekeeper to keep watch..
And maybe that’s how we are to stay alert at all times. If we become more and more a community, loving and trusting each other to a greater and greater degree; if we strengthen our bonds with each other through our shared faith, of course, but in practical terms by becoming involved in our parish community through its various ministries and associations. And as we intentionally work together to strengthen our Christian community, we of course look to our pastors and our bishop who are set up by the sacrament of Holy Orders to guide us, to be watchmen, to be gatekeepers. And indeed we also have each other, And we remember those words, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them. And it’s a wonderful thing to know that Jesus is there when we come together in our community.
Jesus urges us to be alert because we don’t know when this period of grace will end. Advent is a time to ask, are we ready? And if not, what am I going to do about it? And maybe part of that is to become more fully part of this parish community, which God gives us precisely so that we as a community can be alert to his presence and intentions. If you are not involved in our parish life except for attending the weekend liturgy, please think about becoming more a part of parish life in this new liturgical year.
