Stay awake, Pray always and Stand confidently

First Sunday of Advent Year C

I know it’s Advent and you would be expecting me to say something about the spirit of this season, but the terse three-part command issued by the Lord at the end of the gospel draws us back to the evening of Holy Thursday, to the scene of our Lord and His disciples gathered together in the Garden of Gethsemane. This threefold command almost seems reminiscent of what the Lord had expected from His disciples.

In that Garden, our Lord asked His disciples to “stay here and watch with Me”, but when He returned, He found them asleep and caution them “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).  Earlier, He had taught them: “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” And yet at the end, one of His disciples would betray Him, another deny Him while others fled instead of choosing to “stand with confidence before the Son of Man.”

On all three accounts, the disciples had failed. Nothing we do can change that. No one can re-write history. There is no turning back the clock. What is more important is that we should know where we are going and that will affect the choices we make. The disciples eventually redeemed themselves or to be exact, they were redeemed by the Lord.

Likewise, the season of Advent provides us with a similar opportunity to redeem ourselves by preparing ourselves for the Lord’s coming - will we succeed where the disciples failed? Will we be able to stay awake, praying at all times for our survival and salvation and finally, stand confidently with Christ if we find ourselves on the hot seat?

If you are nervous and uncertain as to whether you are able to withstand the test and pass where the disciples had failed, you have every reason to do so. Listening to our Lord’s ominous warning, it would appear that there is plenty to be anxious about. “There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; men dying of fear as they await what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.” When you begin to examine each of the items on this list, however, you would soon realise that this is not just something that will happen in the future; these things are happening to people right now. Instead of just being crippled by fear, our Lord tells us that the true object of our focus should be Him: “Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Troubles coming our way is certain. But our Saviour’s coming “with power and great glory”, that too is most certain.

This is what Advent should mean for us. It is a time for us to be filled with new hope, new courage without putting on blinders and pretending that the mess we see in the world is not real. We are not asked to ignore or deny the reality of suffering, evil or death. In fact, we are asked to affirm these things while also recognising that there is something here far greater than suffering, evil and death. Therefore, Advent is a time for us to be reassured that the darkness that overshadows the present moment, whether from sin, sickness, poverty, sorrow, weakness or failure, will be dissipated and driven away by the Sun of Justice, the Word-Made-Flesh.

Advent is not a season of false hope. We are not getting ready for some improbable, imagined event that exists only in fantasy. Our hope is based on the assurance that our God is coming. He has, in fact, already come among us in our own flesh. He has already loved us beyond death, has overcome sin and evil, and has seeded us with the hope of Eternal Life. And that is why our Lord can say this to us with such confidence: “When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.”

Advent days are not to be wasted in spiritual idleness, in distracting ourselves with busy activity nor in fruitless worrying. We should use these advent days to stir up this hope in a fearful world, to cultivate that seed of hope to full bloom. We know that the Lord has come... we are certain that the Lord will come. And for us, that does not mean waiting in fear and dread for doomsday. We do believe in the Second Coming of Jesus and that is why we should stand erect, hold our heads high, because our liberation is near at hand.

We are not spending four weeks just to welcome again the "baby Jesus". We are trying to drive away the shadows of sin and despair, so that we can open our hearts and minds and lives to the overpowering light of the incarnate Son of God made man. We want to use this sacred time to deepen our understanding of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We need to realise again how fully He has entered into the very fabric of our lives. We want to allow Him to transform every facet of our human existence, so that in all things we think, speak, choose and act, as redeemed children of God. Our coming Christmas celebration has to include all of this. So, if you’ve drawn up a bucket list of things-to-do before Christmas, don’t forget the following, place it at the top of your list:

“Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.”