We Really Need To Wake Up Today

First Sunday of Advent 2022

“The Son of man,” we hear from Jesus, “is coming at an hour [we] do not expect.” So what? Should I be concerned about that? Modern men and women, bathed in a sea of information about what the world considers important, spend much time hearing about things they can buy that are promised to bring happiness. This automobile, that video game, this cruise line to exotic places, that brand of pizza. If they think about the coming feast of Christmas at all, people of all ages think, like Ralphie in The Christmas Story, it’s about what Santa is going to bring them. And we can all be Ralphie, whatever our age or sex. We equate material goods or earthly experiences with happiness. And that’s completely wrong, isn’t it?

This season of Advent is indeed the start of what can be the “most wonderful time of the year,” but only if we listen to the words of St. Paul. Our modern culture, just like Roman culture in his time, sees happiness in getting drunk, abusing each other sexually, doing what we like regardless of its effects on others, getting power over others and playing silly games. Paul warns us that such actions ignore the reality. We are closer now to the hour of judgement than we were when we first proclaimed “I believe in God, the Father Almighty.” Have we grown closer to Christ in our daily work and play and prayer? Have we done loving things for others, especially the poor and outcast, with no thought to personal advantage? Do we look more like Jesus than we did on January 1? If not, then we have wasted a whole year on insignificant activity. We are not ready for the coming of Christ. It’s as if we didn’t wake up on January 1 and are still asleep. Paul echoes Jesus today: Wake up!

You see, Jesus, the very Word of the Father, became human so that we could all become divine. Not just nice people. Not just well thought of people. We are destined, by God’s grace, to become adopted sons and daughters of God. Jesus gave up every bit of His glory, became like a crucified slave, so that we could be raised up to divine status. That’s all the happiness any of us can attain, and every other pleasure is like garbage by comparison. Jesus came to reverse the scattering of humanity that the Bible relates to the Tower of Babel. He came to attract all people to Himself, crucified, so that we all can be justified and sanctified as one people of God. He summons all of us to right worship and right living. And there’s a big reason why we need to make that commitment right now.

A wise man once challenged me to answer the question, “if Jesus says He is going to come at a time we least expect, when should we be ready for our death or His second coming?” Let’s do a simple thought experiment. Pick any date in the future, any date at all, to be ready, and call it D-Day. If you get to that date, what can you say? You know that you’d better be ready. But that’s the date you expect. Then the date you least expect would be the day before. So you’d need to be ready at D-day minus 1. But that’s the new day you expect. So D-day minus 2. Oops. What we must concluded is that we need to be ready right now, the real preparation deadline.

Whatever you have to do, please do it today. All of us are sinners. If we need to repent of any sin, do it now. If we need to make restitution to someone we’ve injured, do it before retiring tonight. If we need to make up for all the alms we have not given to the poor, it’s time. If we need to let the Holy Spirit do something in our lives we know we are called to do, don’t wait another hour. The time we least expect has already come. If we want to walk in the light of the Lord in the new Jerusalem on high, we cannot stay asleep. We cannot delay.