Isa 63:16-17; 64:3–8, 1 Cor
1:3-9, Mark 13:33-37
When Jesus is telling us in the Gospel about the
necessity of being awaken or being vigilant He means it literally.
Our spiritual life is like driving a car. We can be
going about our business, attempting to live our faith, but taking things for
granted. Warning signs are often ignored. These signs might be slacking off
from church attendance, letting some things into our homes or lives that are
questionable, inappropriate or even unchristian. Maybe we are exercising less
control over our tempers. Or perhaps, we are not making as much time for prayer
as we need. Suddenly, we fall asleep.
Temptation is there, but we don't have enough spiritual energy to resist. If we
are blessed, we wake up in time to realize that we are destroying the spiritual
life of our baptism. But it could happen that we don't wake up and sleep
forever in our sins, spiritually dead.
Perhaps we fall asleep missing the opportunities the
Lord provides for us to experience His Presence and provide His Presence, His
Love and Compassion, to others. Sometimes we get so involved in what we are
doing that we forget why we are doing it. You know me. I’m a steamroller when
it comes to preparing everything for one of our celebrations. How many of you
have smiled at me, or said “Hi” and I haven’t even noticed? That’s what I mean,
getting so involved with what I am doing that I forget why I am doing it. Moms
and Dads can do this quite often too. A Mom or Dad can be so busy caring for
the family that he or she misses the opportunity to be with the family. Or we
can be so determined to reach out to Christ in strangers and experience His
Presence in those whom we do not know, that we ignore His Presence in our
brother and sister, our parents or our children.
We need to stay awake.
Lastly I read quite strong statement on one webpage
dealing with sociological problems of the contemporary civilization:
What is deepest sickness of
the contemporary world?
An the answer was rather depressive …
The contemporary world's
deepest sickness is ….. arrogance
... and apathy of a well-fed society
obsessed with constant entertainment. If something is not entertaining then I
am "uninterested, uninvolved, unconcerned, neglectful and careless …"
The truth about God, about Creator for majority of our
generation is ABSOLUTELY not entertaining …
Apathy is the stage of being asleep, and this is the
biggest danger of our religious life, causing nothing else that lethargy and
finally the death.
It seems that we are living in the time of a
disappearance or even an evaporation of faith. I am not accusing anybody I am
just stating the visible fact … Faith is disappearing from the contemporary
world. We are witnessing to the atrophy, degeneration and withering of the
faith.
In the Gospel of St. Luke Jesus is asking a very
awkward question: "When the Son of Man comes to the earth, will
He find the faith in human hearts?" Luke 18:8"
This is why Jesus at end of today's Gospel strongly warns
us: "May He not come suddenly and find you sleeping."
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