Gospel Mk 13:33-37
Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!!
Homily
I remember as a youth still in secondary school putting off studying till the weekend and then the following week and another week until exams were upon us. Of course the result was that I did not do very well in examinations and often had to face the wrath of my parents.
I remembered that stage in my life as I read the Gospel passage given to us for this first Sunday of Advent in which we are told to be “watchful and alert”, doing the work given to us as we await the Master’s coming which may happen more suddenly than we expect. We of course have heard this Gospel passage many times and as many times as we have heard it we think of God coming to us, not only in death but so very often in our lives. The fact of the matter though is that God does not come to us, God is always present to us and has always been from the very moment of our conception, and this whether we are in the Church or the playing field, in the bedroom or the classroom in the agricultural field or the boardroom for God is everywhere. God is within us. The issue for all of us then is very simple. Are we present to this God who is with us and within us? This is the path of the conversion experience. It is becoming more and more present to God.
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All of us seek happiness, the happiness that only God can provide and in the search for happiness we so often make ourselves present to created things, to pleasure, prestige, power and money and lose ourselves in them. If “our number is called” while we are lost in these things, the habits which we have created keep us there and we never achieve the happiness which we crave. In fact true happiness is achieved in the measure that one is present to God.
This is in fact what the saints all experienced. They all lived in the presence of God. This is most beautifully expressed in the words of St. Augustine who shortly after his conversion penned these immortal words: “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things that you created. You were with me, but I was not with you.”
This then is the task which we are all called to work diligently to fulfil, not putting it off for the morrow but constantly working at it, i.e. making ourselves present to God. It demands of us the building of personal structures which remind us that God is present to us. Whether it is the image of the Sacred Heart on our desk, or a statue of Christ or the B.V.M., as human beings we need these reminders which then afford us the opportunity to make ourselves present to the Divine which is constantly with us and within us. It is this habit which will ensure that we are ready and waiting when the Lord comes be it in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-present God, You are with us always but so often we are unaware of your presence and live lives which offend you. We so often place the unsacred and sinful in your most holy and divine presence. Forgive us lord for this lack of sensitivity to you presence with us and within us. Give us the grace we need O’ Lord to build the habit of recognizing your presence and of living in your presence so that whether you come in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning we will be awake. We ask this through the intercession of Mary our Mother and your Son Jesus both of whom we always present to You. Amen
