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.