Watch and Pray

Gospel Reflection for December 3, 2023, the First Sunday of Advent - Mark 13:33-37

Take ye heed, watch and pray. For ye know not when the time is.

Even as a man who going into a far country, left his house; and gave authority to his servants over every work, and commanded the porter to watch.

Watch ye therefore, (for you know not when the lord of the house cometh: at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning,)

Lest coming on a sudden, he find you sleeping.

And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch. (Mark 13:33-37 DRA)

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of a new liturgical year. While many people, including myself, are already celebrating Christmas, putting up their trees and decorations, listening to classic Christmas songs and rereading A Christmas Carol, the true meaning of Advent itself should not be forgotten. Just as Lent is a time of penitential preparation for the Holy Triduum, looking forward to the joy of our redemption with solemnity and self-examination, so Advent is also a penitential season. However, as the readings for the season make clear, Advent has a special eschatological character, looking forward not only to Christmas but to the fullness of time which began at the Annunciation: the Second Coming, when Our Lord will return in glory to destroy sin and death and initiate the End Times, when all the living and dead will be resurrected, either to eternal life or eternal damnation, (2 Mac 7:14) and the New Heaven and New Earth will be inaugurated. (Rev 21)

The End Times are often viewed with fear by Christians, especially those who subscribe to the false notion of the Rapture and other Protestant traditions of men. This apprehension is not completely unwarranted – one purpose of Advent is to examine this feeling, to “with fear and trembling work out your salvation”, as St. Paul instructed. (Phil 2:12) We only fear Christ’s return because of the affection for sin which we keep in the silence of our hearts. Sin is the voluntary separation of man from God, the hardening of our hearts against His love; this great divorce, as C.S. Lewis called it, is an abyss that humanity cannot overcome on its own. Christ came in order to bridge this divide through the Cross, giving us a pathway to reclamation through redemptive suffering and self-giving love by His grace. Advent is given to us by the Church as a time to examine our consciences, confess our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and perform works of penance and charity to remit the temporal punishment for sin and grow in conformity to Christ.

Ultimately, as Our Lord makes clear in this parable, we cannot know the day when He will return: it will come “as a thief in the night.” (1 Thess 5:2) He states this explicitly in the preceding verses: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. But of that day or hour no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father.” (Mark 13:31-32) We should therefore ignore conspiracy theories and false prophecies claiming to foretell when the End Times will come or presuming that they have already begun. Our task is to stand vigilant and awake, ready when our Master returns home. This is why Christ elsewhere asks: “But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?” (Lk 18:8) This Advent, all of us are called to ask ourselves this same question. When Christ comes, whether at Christmas or the Parousia, will He find faith in me? Do I commit to Him, trust in His Providence, obey the Deposit of Faith which He has instilled in the Church and adhere to His laws, even if they might seem strange, difficult or unfashionable? Am I willing to give up my comforts and conveniences, my reputation and familiarity with the world, and even my very life for Him? Faith is not mere belief – faith is a gift, an inheritance bequeathed by Christ to His Church who, at His death, received all that He possessed and even His very divine life. Faith is the pearl of great price, the treasure of infinite value which all those in His house are charged with preserving and sharing with the world while He is away, preparing mansions for us in the Kingdom of Heaven so that we may live with Him forever: “The man who taking a far journey left his house is Christ, who ascending as a conqueror to His Father after the resurrection, left His Church, as to His bodily presence, but has never deprived her of the safeguard of His Divine presence.” (Bede, Catena Aurea)

We are the servants left in charge of His house, the Church, given roles according to our talents: “For as the body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ.” (1 Cor 12:12) The pope and bishops of the Church are the gatekeepers, “the dispensers of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor 4:1) tasked with defending the house against intruders, maintaining order within it and distributing the graces of the Master to those who are called to enter. Like fathers, the hierarchy must not be derelict, failing to provide for their family and allowing corruptive influences to sow disharmony among their children. Like God Himself, who is called a shepherd in the Psalm, the porters of the Church are our shepherds, but we as sheep must be discerning, always keeping troth with Christ our one true Shepherd even if his stewards let wolves sneak through the gates. As Pope St. Gregory the Great wrote,

For the earth is properly the place for the flesh, which was as it were carried away to a far country, when it was placed by our Redeemer in the heavens. And he gave his servants power over every work, when, by giving to His faithful ones the grace of the Holy Ghost, He gave them the power of serving every good work. He has also ordered the porter to watch, because He commanded the order of pastors to have a care over the Church committed to them. Not only, however, those of us who rule over Churches, but all are required to watch the doors of their hearts, lest the evil suggestions of the devil enter into them, and lest our Lord find us sleeping. (Catena Aurea)

This Advent, alongside the works of penance and charity required of us, may we also look forward not only to Christmas but to the Second Coming, with the joy and anticipation expressed by Isaias in the first reading who, while he freely acknowledges humanity’s sin and guilt, also longs for God to come, knowing that, as the Source of Justice and Mercy, “He shall cast death down headlong for ever: and the Lord God shall wipe away tears from every face, and the reproach of his people he shall take away from off the whole earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.” (Is 25:8) St. John gives us an even greater promise of the salvation of the Lamb, echoing the Prophet: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away.” (Rev 21:4) No matter what pain and heartache with which you are inflicted, as so many around the world struggle with hunger, disease, poverty, persecution, despair, anxiety and loss which can seem so bitter and hopeless while we are within it, may the Christ Child be a reminder to you that God is always near to those who love Him, only allowing us to suffer the Cross so that, by our purgative suffering and self-sacrifice, we may participate in the redemption won by Christ and so attain His resurrection and the certainty of triumphal victory which awaits. St. Paul, again echoing Isaias, thus intoned: “That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Cor 2:9)

On his feast day, may St. Francis Xavier, who prepared for Christ’s coming by risking his life in unknown lands to bring countless souls into the Church, ora pro nobis!

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