Mark 13:
33-37
Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his
slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to
be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the
master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at
cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes
suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’
Welcome to Advent. Welcome to the time of Arrival. Pay attention.
Be aware. Keep alert. Keep awake. In the Gospel, Jesus' words have a
sense of urgency and maybe even of danger. If we're not paying
attention, the time of arrival could come suddenly and we could miss
it. What a tragedy that would be. It would be a tragedy and it is a
tragedy because we miss him all the time.
The celebration of Advent in the church year has a three-fold
purpose. The first two purposes are easy to identify: to focus our
attention on the first coming of Christ and to reawaken our
anticipation of the second coming of Christ at the end of the world.
It's the third purpose that gets lost not only during these next four
weeks of chaotic Christmas preparation but also in the busyness of
our whole lives. And what Jesus said in the Gospel holds true for
every single day of our lives. We don't know when the Master will
come and he may find us asleep when he comes suddenly. The church
graciously offers us this season of remembrance – a time to
remember that not only did our Lord come and will come again but also
that he is always coming, sometimes at dawn, sometimes during the day,
sometimes in the evening and sometimes in the dark of night.
Pressures and obligations distract us, we struggle with daily life or we are
spiritually asleep and we miss him. It's true. All of us continually
miss Advents every day of our lives.
So, the Church offers us a season to renew our spiritual
attentiveness. But how? How can we sharpen up our awareness so that
when the presents are opened, the food consumed and the lights and
decorations are packed away for another year, we still have a
spiritual alertness within? How can we develop a habit of
anticipation and longing for his coming and his arrival? Prayer is
the answer but often prayer is dry and uninviting or it has
become a dull routine that we tend to hurry through – if we get to it at
all with all the demands life dumps on us. The Christmas season is an
especially difficult time to renew our sense of prayerful waiting
simply because of all the added pressures and demands. How, then, can
we reconnect with prayer to make this period of waiting a time of
true anticipation?
What would you like for Christmas from God? If you could ask for
any spiritual gift, a gift that was for you and you alone, what would
you ask for? Take some time to think about that and don't just give
an answer that you think is the right one or an answer that you think
would please your priest, your spiritual mentor or your friends.
Somewhere deep inside of you is a yearning and it could be so deep
that you haven't paid a lot of attention to it. What do you really
want from God? The reason it's so important to name your deepest
spiritual desires is because God put them there. Once you recognize
and name a desire, go to God and tell him that this is what you want
for Christmas. But don't leave it there. As often as you can
remember, pray and tell God that you are looking forward to him
giving you the gift of your heart's desire.
This prayer shouldn't be a long one. The shorter the prayer, the
better so that you can pray it at any time no matter what is
happening. I call it “Pocket Prayer” - a prayer small enough to
pull out of your heart any time of the day. When we were discussing
such a prayer in our woman's group, my friend, Margaret, brilliantly
termed it, “Tweeting God”. Think in terms of a prayer 140
characters or less. Less is better because in this prayer, wordiness
doesn't count for anything but turning often to the Lord is key.
Recognizing one or more of your inner desires is important for
this Advent prayer because you will then pray from your heart with a
yearning that underscores your waiting. Listen to what St. Augustine
said about desire. “The desire is thy prayer; and if thy desire
is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The
continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.”
What could be simpler? What could be more in tune with Advent, the
season of waiting daily for the arrival of Jesus? You don't even
really need words at all. All you need to do is turn to God, open
your heart and show him your desire.
Something happens when you pray often like this. You start to
develop a prayer life not just a prayer time. Because your prayer is
simple, short and frequent, you begin to “tweet God' about more
than your inner desires; you begin to speak to him about everything.
He becomes the receptor of all your thoughts. You develop a deeper
sense of the God in whom you live, move and have your being. You
awaken your awareness and you become more alert to the times when
Jesus comes to you unannounced. You suddenly catch glimpses of him
watching you from the eyes of another person. You will see him and
welcome him in the middle of a busy mall, while you're at work, when
you're walking down the street, when you look at the starry universe
or when you're gazing at some magical Christmas lights. And then you
will tweet him. “Thank you. The world doesn't know you but you are
here. I can feel it.”
Naturally, I can't guarantee that God will give you the specific
desire of your heart right on Christmas day. God has his own calendar
and his own perfect timing. Both Simeon and Anna in the temple waited
patiently on God's timing for years and God blessed them with their
own personal and perfect Christmases: “Master, now you are
dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes
have seen your salvation...” and “...[she] began to
praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for
the redemption of Jerusalem.” If Simeon and Anna had not been
prayer-full people and had not been awake and fully aware of what the
subtle manifestations of God felt like in their lives, they would
have completely missed the Christ child. Really...he was just another
baby in the arms of his mother. No one else in the crowd sensed
anything special or wonderful about this particular child. But the
hearts of both Simeon and Anna were so immersed in prayer that they
immediately sensed they were in the presence of everything they
had ever hoped for, desired and waited for all their lives. This was
not a thunder and lightening-bolt revelation. This was a penetrating
but subtle shift in the spiritual atmosphere. All the other weary,
busy and distracted people in the temple missed it but Simeon and
Anna knew without any doubt that the veil between heaven and earth
had been dislocated just enough for the son of God to slip through
into the world. They recognized him because they knew him. They were
so familiar with him that even clothed in the humanity of an infant,
they knew exactly who he was.
It was enough for them. It was more than enough for them.
Pray. Pray short but pray often and lace your prayers with thanks.
Eventually, your prayer will become more than you talking at God. It
will create within you a vibrant and aware heart that is awake and able to
recognize the Lord when he comes.
And he will come.
Rejoice always;
pray constantly; give
thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. (I
Thessalonians 5: 16-18)
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will
give you the desires of your heart.
(Psalm 37:4)
Lovely, thank you.
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