1st Sunday of Advent Keep Alert The terrifying disasters described in today’s Gospel go far beyond any predictions given about global warming. The physical and social meltdown of both the natural and the human world sounds like something out of a horror movie. And we who live in a highly regulated and regular world find it difficult to comprehend what Jesus is talking about. This is eschatological language – language of the last times. With our regulated and regular lives we can be lulled into believing that what we experience on a regular basis is all there is to life. Indeed most of us spend most of our lives interacting with people, often good people, who simply have no understanding of God. God as an optional extra to life, like gym membership. We must ask ourselves what can happen to us living in such a society? Jesus in today’s Gospel tells us to “keep alert” – not let our hearts be coarsened. Another translation says not to let your hearts be weighed down. The first translation gives the sense of losing one’s sensitivity for God, the other for being overwhelmed with despair. Both temptations can come to us. What Jesus calls us to believe is that God has power over all things, both what seems disastrous and what seems apathetic. What is asked of us is: to remain faithful. In the rest of Luke’s gospel, being alert is often linked with prayer. As we begin each day offering our day to God, may our hearts be renewed in knowing that God can make all things new, even the worst of disasters.
Sr Kym Harris OSB |