“Stay Awake! Be Ready! You Don’t Know the Hour When the Lord is Coming!”
Jesus says, “I am going to prepare a place for you, & after I have gone and prepared the place I shall return to take you with me, so that where I am you may be too.” I was reminded of this very forcefully this week when I was called to bless a parishioner who had died very suddenly at home. All the family were there & in deep shock. As we said the prayers, I could sense a deep faith & a desire to make sense of the sudden passing. The Lord was waiting for one of his own.
Each Advent when I go into the school & talk about the period of preparation I am always amused when one or other child cannot restrain themselves & decides that Santa Claus is the real reason for the Season. But as adults do we really know that “Jesus is the reason for the Season”. Very often we get caught up with the present buying & giving, the ‘family gathering’ & who goes where. This, of course, is much more difficult this year with the restrictions, the Tiers & the fear of infection & the very real danger of the vulnerable being exposed to infection or even death. This should be a time, not only, of personal preparation but also of our responsibility to the wider community. We must be ready to change, to become the adult Christians that we are. We are called to conversion & to be a real example to those in our family & in our wider community. In this crazy time it is easy to try & find ways around any restriction that may be imposed, sulk like children that we are being deprived of our chance to celebrate, but how many of us could live with ourselves if a vulnerable member of our family died because we wanted to party? This will be a different Advent, a different Christmas & we have a responsibility to try to make it as safe as possible as well as being as fruitful. We must stay awake, be aware of our duty to protect our poor and weak.