While some people can wake up on their own, and thus start their daily activities, most, instead, need an alarm clock, to rise from their sleep. Others, such as Padre Pio, need even more than one alarm clock to open their eyes and begin a new day. In the Seminary, we woke up at the sound of a bell, which functioned as an effective alarm clock, for all those in the house. At 5:55 a.m. sharp, it rang, and it made it very difficult to continue sleeping. The formators always told us that the bell was like the voice of God saying: “wake up, and get ready, so that you can meet me this day.”
The readings of today, and indeed the readings of this final week of the liturgical year, are like an alarm clock, which calls us to wake up from our slumber. They are like the bell in the Seminary, ringing loud so that we may wake up, watch and be ready, as the Gospel says, “to stand before the son of man,” who is coming to meet us, and to offer us the life that our hearts yearn for.
We live in a “slumber” when our search for security and happiness is centered in this world alone, and we lose sight of our call to transcend our lives beyond the here and now. Jesus refers to this in the Gospel, when, warning his disciples, he says: “take heed of yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly.” To be sure, there is nothing wrong with striving to live a comfortable and enjoyable life. It is natural to search for ways to secure ourselves, in all the aspects of our lives. However, when we only value securities in this world, we are bound to experience the “heaviness” of a dissatisfied heart. I am sure that, in one way or another, we have all experienced the disappointment of toiling for a goal or a project that, in the end, did not give us the “ultimate joy” we expected it would.
We have been created for so much more than “making it” in this life. Indeed, in Baptism we have received a seed of immortality, and have been made sharers of God’s divine life. Indeed, we only live fully when our goals, our projects and our plans are projected towards eternity, because eternity is what our hearts yearn for. Thus, we live in a “slumber” when we fail to consider the imminent coming of “that day,” in which the Lord will made manifest the fullness of His design of love for us.
That is why, the Lord calls us to wake up and “to watch at all times,” so that we may be ready to receive Him and the life He offers. The psalm says: “o if today you would hearken to his voice.” The good news is that the life that the Lord promises, which surpasses any of our aspirations or projects of happiness, can be experienced today. If we listen to the Word of God and allow it to transform our lives, we can already foresee and foretaste the grandeur of “the heavenly Jerusalem,” image of the eternal life promised us by God.
Tomorrow we start the season of Advent. Let us wake up to the invitation of His word, to be vigilant and to pray, so that we may stand ready to experience the joy of the heavenly Jerusalem.
