Mt 24: 37-44

“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” (Mt 24:44)

Today is the first Sunday of the liturgical year and the beginning of Advent.  The word ‘advent’ originates from the Latin word ad venio which means “to come”.  Today we begin the holy time of preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas.  But what do we exactly mean by saying ‘the coming of the Lord?’  The fathers of the Church, like St. Bernard of Clairvaux, understood the coming of Christ on three levels, the same in which we experience time:  in the past, when Jesus came as a baby in Bethlehem; in the future, when He will come at the end of time; but, most importantly, in the present, when Christ comes to us every day.  To prepare us for this present coming of the Lord, all three readings call us for spiritual alert.

In the Gospel, Jesus invites us to be vigilant and watchful.  Otherwise, we can repeat the mistake of the people of the time of Noah.  Immersed in their daily life and ordinary activities, the people were unaware of the flood that was coming upon them.  So, Jesus says, the same is with the coming of the Son of Man.  Those who are not attentive won’t be prepared for His coming.^[1] When the Son of Man comes, two people will be doing exactly the same thing, like “working in the field or grinding meal together; but one will be taken, and one will be left” (Mt 24:41).  The image of taking some people and leaving others behind comes from the early Christian’s belief.  The early church believed that, when the Son of Man comes, He will send His angels to take the saints, the righteous, to Himself.  To say “one is taken and one is left” is to say one was prepared, the other was not.^[2]  Those who are “left” does not mean they go to hell.^[3] Since Jesus is talking also about His coming every day into our lives, “to be left” means to have no part in God’s life here and now;  to continue life without depth and meaning.  This is why Jesus invites us to be alert.  This is why he says, “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Indeed, when we honestly look at our lives, we notice that often we are very much asleep, both to God’s presence and to people around us.  Fr. Ron Rolheiser, to illustrate our sleepiness, recalls in one of his articles a story that comes from the Hindu mystical tradition.

One day a man was walking with God.  The man says to God, ‘Please explain to me the mystery of your presence?’  God says, ‘I will explain it to you but first, let’s stop at this house, I am thirsty.  Please go into this house and bring me a cup of water.’  The man knocks at the door and a very beautiful woman answers the door. He says, ‘Could you give me a cup of water?’  She answers, ‘I could, and I will, but why don’t you come in and first we have a meal?’ So he does. … Forty-five years later … they have been married; they have three children; they have a happy household.  One night there is a terrible storm. The house is shaken by wind and thunder and the man begins to pray, ‘God, God, where are you?’  God says, ‘Where is my cup of water?’

The point of course is not to say that God pays back the same as us.  The point is that we are very much asleep to God’s presence.  Rolheiser points out that God’s presence lays inside of us quietly, almost unfelt, and largely unnoticed.  It can be ignored for years and years.  God does not overpower us.  He does not twist any arms, but He never goes away.^[4]  

Jesus, at one point turned to his disciples and said, “you can perfectly read the signs of weather, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ … (or) ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’  You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times” (Mt 16:2-3).  You are so astute in reading weather but you cannot see the depth of your own life and God’s presence in it.  So, how can we learn to see more deeply in terms of faith?  How to be awake to God’s hidden and quiet presence in our lives?^[5]  How to stay awake, to be vigilant and prepared for the Lord’s coming?

Today there is rich literature that offers us all kinds of advice on how to be awake to a deeper reality.  One of the most popular types of advice we hear is to live each day of our lives as if it were our last day.  That is a valuable recommendation but it is not difficult to recognize that to take this advice seriously would be difficult.  We simply cannot sustain that kind of intentionality over a long period of time.  Awareness of our mortality does not make us more alert.^[6]  We know that our life has a 100 percent mortality rate; without exception, each of us will die, but this fact does not necessarily wake us up.  So, what does wake us up?  How to be awake to the riches of our own lives?  How to see the mystery of God in our lives with depth and understanding?

One may say that success or great achievement would wake us up and make us more aware of God’s presence.  But when we look at the most successful people, we see that their great accomplishments, yes, bring them glory, but not necessarily depth or awareness of God’s presence in their lives.  James Hillman, an American psychologist and writer, claims that what truly shapes our characters, what allows us to see with depth, what wakes us up, are not our successes and victories, but our defeats and failures.  Hillman claims that the door into our souls is opened through our wounds and our pains.^[7]

And Hillman is right but there is one condition for our defeats, failures, and wounds to wake us up, to work for our benefit.  As we know, wounds, in order to be healed, need to be brought to a physician.  Our failures and wounds and sins, in order to be healed and wake us up, need to be brought to Christ.  What does happen when we bring our wounds to Christ?  What happens when we come to God with our failures is illustrated well in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  As we read in the parable, “while the son was still far away his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran (towards him) and put his arms around him and kissed him” (Lk 15:20).  Our wounds are healed when they are embraced and kissed by the unconditional mercy of God.  We do not wake up by the power of our will.  We do not wake up by awareness of our mortality.  We do wake up and our eyes are opened when we meet with unconditional kindness and unconditional mercy.

And this is what Advent is about.  When Jesus says, “you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” He wants us to know that He comes to us every day but in order to be ready and to see His presence, in order to experience the depth of His mercy and kindness, we are invited not to be afraid to open our wounds before Him.  When we do so, when we approach God as we are, with our wounds and failures, when we allow Christ to embrace us in His mercy, His love will transform the deepest darkness and the most humiliated failures into hope and meaning for us.   

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^[1] Senior, Donald. Abingdon New Testament Commentaries; Matthew. (Nashville; Abingdon Press, 1998).

^[2] See, Davies, W. D., & Allison, D. C., Jr. (2004). A critical and exegetical commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew (Vol. 3, p. 383).  London; New York; T & T Clark International.

^[3] Fr. Fernando Armellini, “A Judgment that Saves.”1^st Sunday of Advent, December 1, 2019, A.

https://sundaycommentaries.wordpress.com (accessed November 29, 2019)

^[4] Ron Rolheiser, OMI, “Staying Awake” http://ronrolheiser.com/staying-awake/#.XUDg6C3Mx0s (accessed July 30, 2019)

^[5] Ibid.

^[6] Ibid.

^[7] See, James Hillman, Re-Visioning Psychology, Harper Collins Publishers, 1997.