By waking up one enters a whole new world of reality, different from that of the dream
world. What was a huge problem in the dream state becomes a non-issue in the waking state. Dream
state concerns and priorities lose their importance and new concerns and priorities take their place.
For example, you discover that your problem is no longer how to escape from wild beasts but how
to beat the morning rush and arrive early for work. We can relate to the change that occurs between
a dream consciousness and a wake consciousness. A similar and even more significant change occurs
when we move from a state of being spiritually asleep to that of being spiritually awake, when the
soul is awake and alert to spiritual reality.
In today’s gospel Jesus admonishes and encourages his followers to remain alert in the spirit.
He was about to leave them for an uncertain length of time. By their faith and commitment to Jesus,
his followers are like people who have roused themselves from spiritual slumber. But the time of his
absence would be a time of trial for their faith life when they would be tempted to doze off. He
enjoins them to remain awake and watchful so that whenever he comes to them he would find them
not sleeping but watching in faith, ready to welcome him.
Today we enter the season of Advent: a time of special preparation for the coming of the
Lord. Mark’s portrait of the doorman watching out to open for the Lord whenever he “suddenly”
appears is an image of what we are expected to be doing all year long but especially during the
season of Advent. The doorman keeps awake in order to recognize and welcome the Lord at his
coming. Faith, likewise, transforms us into people who are able to recognize the Lord and willing
to receive him. Recognition is crucial because the Lord does not always come in easily recognizable
ways. At Bethlehem he came in the form of a baby and people did not recognize him. In the Parable
of the Last Judgment, which we heard last Sunday, he said he came to people in the form of the most
needy and disadvantaged of this world and many did not recognize him. But true people of faith did
recognize him and serve him in these people who live in the blind-spot of society. Faith is first a way
of seeing, and then a way of living.
The “wicked” who were consigned to hell in the Last Judgment were probably waiting for
the final coming of the Lord and failed to recognize him in his day-to-day coming. The shocker in
that parable is that Christ comes into our lives in the form of the ordinary people and events of our
everyday lives. We need to be awake in faith to recognize and serve Christ in these commonplace
and routine encounters since it will do us no good to recognize him on the Last Day if we have not
recognized and served him day by day.
Before we conclude, let us say a word about Jesus’ saying “But about that day or hour no
one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32). This
saying can be understood literally to mean that Jesus did not know the date of the end of the world.
It can also be understood as a strategy meant to discourage the disciples from further inquiry into
the matter. In either case the implication for us is the same: Put an end to idle speculations regarding
the date of the Last Day. Open your eyes in faith to see God present and active in your life and in
your world. Open your heart and your house to the Lord who comes to you daily in the form of the
needy man or woman. This is the best way to prepare to welcome the Lord when he comes on the
Last Day.
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