How many of you have had the experience of sleeping through something important? Like a flight, getting up late for work, school, missing a test, etc..
As a priest, there is usually at least one time in every assignment where you slumber through a morning Mass, either because of weariness or because you misread the schedule. Whatever the circumstances are for any of us, when it happens, the moment you wake up and realize, “I messed up”, you have that terrible feeling of embarrassment and disappointment. Ultimately, the bummer about oversleeping is that an opportunity or obligation is missed and we can’t go back and fix it.
I mention this human experience because I think it relates to our spiritual lives and the message of the readings for the first week of Advent. In our world today, in the society we live in, it is truly difficult to stay spiritually alert and awake. If we are not careful, the four dangers of spiritual weariness, the darkness of sin, worldly comforts, and the long wait for Jesus will overpower our efforts to keep our souls awake.
This is a busy time of the year; there is no doubt about it. Most of us have many things to accomplish before Christmas arrives. But we can get so caught up in the “holiday spirit” that our spiritual lives fall asleep. Our shopping for friends and family, sending out gifts and Christmas cards, baking cookies, and attending parties and pageants make us weary and this tiredness can lure us into a deep spiritual slumber. We get so worn out by the business of our preparations that we cannot quiet ourselves and stay alert for the coming of Christ.
However, Advent is not just a matter of slowing our lives down. For a majority of people, this simply is not realistic or possible. For many of us, it’s hard to stay spiritually awake because of our own sinfulness. St. Paul tells us in the second reading to throw off the deeds of darkness, those sinful things which cast a deadly sleep upon our souls. And what are these deeds of darkness? St. Paul mentions drunkenness, promiscuity, lust, rivalry, and jealously. But there are smaller sins as well, things that you and I struggle with day in and day out, like anger, gossip, lack of patience, greed, and laziness. If we hope to stay awake and alert for the coming of Christ then we must work to eliminate all the deeds of darkness in our lives with the help of God’s grace.
On top of the busyness and sinfulness that work their way into our lives, we must also be on guard against worldly comfort. Like busyness and sin, worldly comforts can make our souls lethargic and cause us to become dependent upon the things of this earth. If we indulge ourselves in the many creature comforts modern life offers us, we can begin to put our trust in created things rather than our Creator God. Such comforts will slowly steal our focus from Christ’s coming and wrap our souls into spiritual darkness.
The final temptation is the long wait for the return of Jesus. In C.S. Lewis’ intriguing novel, The Screwtape Letters, he writes a fictional account of how satan goes about training young demons how to lure souls away from God. When quizzed about what strategies they will use, the young recruits offer several different ideas: I will instruct people God does not exist." Or "I will argue Hell does not exist." But Satan was annoyed with these suggestions: "most people will see through these lies.” However, another recruit said: "I will tell them they have plenty of time." With this, the devil smiled, because he knew this was a strategy that would work.
The coming of Christ can seem to be something so far in the future that we stop waiting for it. We can be lulled into a false sense of security and be tempted to think that we can always start cleaning up our lives tomorrow --- because Christ is coming someday, --- but not anytime soon. If we aren’t vigilant, we can grow bored and careless in our spiritual lives. However, Paul advises us to awake from our spiritual sleep because the night of sin and death is coming to an end; the day of Christ’s coming is near. And Jesus himself warns us strongly today in the gospel to be ready and prepared, for he will come at a time no one expects. Jesus mentions the days of Noah in his warning, which refers specifically to the fact that Noah worked on the Ark anywhere from 60-120 years! For decades, his friends and neighbors had the chance to repent and change their lives as they saw this massive structure taking place; God was giving them plenty of time to turn their lives around but they put off their repentance until it was too late.
Spiritual weariness, sinfulness, worldly comfort and the long wait for Christ’s coming are all dangers for us to battle this Advent season. These things threaten our relationship with God and make us oblivious to the Lord’s coming. Without God’s grace, we will be unable to stay spiritually awake and our souls will sleep right through this holy time. In her wisdom, the Church gives us the season of Advent to wake us up and to prepare us for the coming of Jesus, the birth of that little baby who will open the gates of heaven for all those who believe.
Let us resolve this Advent season to prepare ourselves well. Let us cast off the deeds of sin and darkness that are found in our lives. May we embrace daily prayer and make use of the sacrament of reconciliation and receive Holy Communion worthily, knowing they are like spiritual alarm clocks. Let us stay awake and alert so we might be prepared for the quiet coming of Christ in our lives and in our hearts.
