The Hour to Awake

It’s a pleasure to be here with you on this holiday weekend. I hope everyone had a very blessed Thanksgiving. Did anyone do any shopping on Black Friday? Plenty of people did – some who were out in search of a particular item, and others who wanted to check out some of the sales that were being promoted, to make sure they didn’t miss out on some really great deal.

I ventured out myself because I decided I needed to buy an alarm clock, of all things. I help out with Mass at lots of churches, all of which have different schedules, and many of which have Masses early in the morning. And if there’s one thing a priest who does supply work is afraid of it’s being late for Mass, so I decided I need to invest in a good alarm beyond just my cell phone.

Part of maturity is learning to do what it takes to get ourselves out of bed in the morning – not to wallow in sleep but to wake up and face the day and what it holds. Today’s second reading reminds us that this is true not only for our bodies but also for our spirits. Just as we must shake off the sleepiness of the morning, so too St. Paul encourages the Romans to be roused from spiritual drowsiness in order to be ready for the hour of salvation. In other words, he tells them that it’s time to wake up, because while the world is still shrouded in night, we await the dawning of the new and eternal day.

In the Morning (1840) by A. Rötting

The season of Advent, which we begin today, is something like a liturgical alarm clock – a ringing reminder from the Church not to be lulled into complacency by the worldly things that surround us, but to wake up and stand ready for the coming of the Lord. And just like we get out of bed and get dressed when our alarm clock goes off in the morning, even if it’s still dark outside, so too St. Paul urges us to take off what is old and disheveled – what he calls the works of darkness: orgies, drunkenness, promiscuity, lust, rivalry, jealousy – and instead dress ourselves in the armor of light. In using this time to be deepen our faith, to strengthen our hope, to renew commitment to works of service and charity, then as he says, we literally put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We become vested in the very identity of the Lord whom we await.

This admonition is one that should always be at the heart of our practice as faithful Christians, but especially so in this season of Advent. As we know, this season is the one that prepares us for the birth of Christ, but it also looks ahead – especially in the first few weeks – to the Lord’s return at the end of time. And it’s that coming which Jesus speaks of in the Gospel today, in which he also encourages the disciples to stay awake, and to stand ready for his return. We don’t know when that return will be, but if we remain ready, then, in a sense, it doesn’t matter when it will happen, because we will be prepared for it whenever he comes.

These next few weeks then are a chance to heed the spiritual alarm clock and to make ourselves ready again for the Lord who is coming. If we have grown a little lax lately in our prayer, now is the chance to renew those daily practices of speaking to the Lord – of communicating with him in the words of Scripture, the words of our devotional prayers, and in our own words from the heart. Maybe we need to admit that our behavior has been a little off recently, perhaps in just those ways that St. Paul warned the Romans about – drunkenness, lust, jealousy. Advent is our chance to rouse ourselves to a new sobriety, so that we will be clearheaded enough to see the dawning of the Lord’s coming. And if we have been a little lethargic lately in helping others – in serving those around us, in sacrificing of ourselves without complaint, in exercising the charity that the Lord commands of his disciples – then Advent is just the perfect time to start over, to start again, and to put on the Lord Jesus Christ in all we do.

Friends, in what way is the Lord calling you to spiritually wake up? In whatever way it is, don’t miss out on the great deal the Lord offers you in this Eucharistic banquet – how at this Mass and every Mass we can recognize and attune ourselves to the Presence of the Lord, who comes to us under the appearance of bread and wine in order to make us ready for his coming on the day of his return. Let’s hear the spiritual alarm clock of this Advent season, so that we may become fully awake in these days, and ready for the day of the Lord’s return.

How the Story Will End

The most important part of any story is how it ends. Lots of stories that start out pretty well are ruined by rotten endings. We probably can all think of a book we read, or a movie we saw, or a TV series that we streamed that started out OK but fell apart by the end. A good story, on the other hand, might start slowly or have some confusing twists or turns in the middle but it ends in a memorable and satisfying way that redeems the whole experience.

The problem, of course, is that we don’t know how a story will end until we get there. Several months ago, I was sitting in a dark theater, kinda squirming in my seat, and just counting down the minutes until the movie I came to see would finally come to an end. I had seen the trailer and thought that the film’s premise looked interesting enough, but halfway through I was second-guessing my decision: the movie was just kind of dragging on, I couldn’t understand where it was going, and worst of all, I wasn’t at all sure the ending was going to be good. At the same time, I was too invested to leave; or better or worse, I had to see it through to the end. Fortunately, on that occasion, I was rewarded for my perseverance – the story picked up and had a good ending that was worth seeing.

Life is not a movie or a TV show, of course, but it is a story, and this is especially true when we think of it in light of our faith. The fundamental claim of the Christian faith is that our lives are part of a larger story – not just the story of the world, but the story of God’s relationship with the world, a relationship that is defined by the person of Jesus Christ. We know the rough outlines of the story: that we have each been created in God’s image and likeness, that by our sins we have fallen short of God’s plan, that we need a Savior and that Savior is Jesus, God-with-us, who died and rose again to save us from our sins, that we now share in his Holy Spirit and in the hope of eternal life with him.

All of that we know, but sometimes we get stuck at that point. We’re not really sure where the story goes from there. How do our lives – with all of their joys and sorrows, their various goals and challenges – how do they fit in to the story? And most importantly, how will they end? In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us some assurance. As the one who wrote the story, he knows how it ends, and he shares with us a glimpse of what the future holds. What we hear may not sound at first very encouraging: nations engaging in violence, natural disasters and famines and plagues, and then perhaps most frighteningly, facing persecutions and even death. In the time of global pandemics, divided politics, even the threat of global war, all of that may hit a little too close to home.

Believe it or not, though, Jesus tells us all of this so that we may have hope. Why? Because he wants us to know what the ending will be. He assures us that in the end, after all these trials, God will save the righteous. All of these bad things will happen and it will seem like the good guys are going to lose, but then – boom, God will come to reward those who persevere in righteousness. As we heard from the prophet Malachi in our first reading, on that day God’s justice will come in an instant to give each their due: for those who are proud and those who do evil, it will be like a blazing oven “to set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch,” whereas for the righteous, that day will dawn like the warm sun “with its healing rays.”

John Martin, The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum (1822)

So, that’s how the story ends generally. But what will our ending be? On the one hand, today’s readings can give us strength and hope – if we find ourselves in the midst of a difficult chapter in life, perhaps confused with the direction we are headed, or being tossed about by the twists and turns in life’s plot. Maybe we are anxious about the storylines we see around us – in our society, in our church, in our personal lives. Maybe even some of us are tempted to give up on our faith. If that’s where we find ourselves, Jesus says, “Take heart! Fear not, for the ending of this story is certain, and though you may be suffering or perplexed now, if you persevere in your faith in me, you will be rewarded.”

On the other hand, today’s readings might be a wake-up call if we’re not perhaps as focused on our final end as we should be. Jesus says that those who share in his identity will necessarily encounter difficulties, sufferings, persecutions, and possibly even death, and we must be ready for those things so that when they come we don’t grow discouraged. The story of life is long and winding, and it has lots of subplots and side stories that can distract us from our ultimate goal, if we’re not careful. If we think that God primarily intends for us to find lasting happiness in this life or in what this life offers – power, pleasures, prestige, possessions – then we should perhaps squirm in our seats a bit because we will be sorely disappointed on the last day.

Friends, a week from now we will celebrate the Feast of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. That’s the part of the story that we haven’t yet experienced – the ending that awaits all of us. He who will return in glory on the last day, who will rule over all things in the end, is also the One who encourages us to have hope in him today, to stay focused on him, and to persevere in faithfulness to him in all of our joys and sorrows, all of our goals and challenges. If we do so, then on the coming of his day, we will encounter his justice like the healing rays of the rising sun. And that will be an ending worth seeing.