Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Be on your guard,
stay awake, because you never know when the time will come. It is like a man
travelling abroad: he has gone from home, and left his servants in charge, each
with his own task; and he has told the doorkeeper to stay awake. So stay awake,
because you do not know when the master of the house is coming, evening,
midnight, cockcrow, dawn; if he comes unexpectedly, he must not find you
asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake!’
Mark 13:33
-37
When our children
were young their anticipation of Christmas was palpable. There were the excited
and animated discussions, all of which reached fever pitch by Christmas Eve.
The day itself was unfolded with the very early rising from beds, the opening
of gifts, play, readying for and attending morning Mass, Christmas lunch with
grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles and aunts.
And there are
times as adults when that sense of anticipation still manages to move us:
preparing for a job interview, buying and moving into a new home, awaiting the
birth of a child. And sometimes our anticipation will be tinged with anxiety:
expecting a confrontation, having that hard conversation.
The early
Christian communities, more so the Pauline communities, possessed a real and
tangible expectation of the second coming. They knew it was coming. As a consequence they lived like it was coming. High expectations were set, share
food equitably, show kindness, everyone do the job they’re good at, praise God
with joy, remember Jesus in the breaking of bread.
We know that the
immediacy of the second coming soon gave way to a sense of immanence: Christ is
here and now, and we all have a responsibility to build the kingdom.
So it is today
that we too have lost that sense of urgency about being prepared and ready,
staying awake, being on guard, awaiting the unexpected.
The sad reality
is that we don’t expect anything other than more of the same. Despite the best
of preaching and commentating, our expectations are rather selfish: we don’t
share food equitably, don’t show kindness, everyone doesn’t do the job they’re
good at, we don’t praise God with joy, and we don’t remember Jesus in the
breaking of bread. For most who believe, the kingdom of heaven is somewhere
after death, a reward for a satisfactory life. This is, of course, so far from
from the expectations of the Pauline and Marcan communities. It is a late
construction in Christian history, in essence to avoid the responsibility to
live a Gospel life right here and now.
The challenge of
this Advent season is, perhaps, not to “stay awake” but WAKE UP! Yes, we need
to wake up and rekindle that sense of anticipation that great things will
happen, the Lord will come, he will come as a child in Bethlehem and he will
come in glory. But we cannot be complacent observers! We need to be participants!
Peter Douglas
HEAD OF SCHOOL
SERVICES, NORTH
Peters Whereabouts for the next two weeks:
Meetings coming up:
Please forward any agenda items for meetings (with some indication of time required and context) to Carole at carole.goodwin@catholic.tas.edu.au or Tracie at tracie.clyne@catholic.tas.edu.au
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