Vigi lance

On the eve of the first Sunday of Advent, let us take a moment to reflect on vigilance, a state of watchfulness, waiting, patience, and endurance. Jesus warns us, "Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap." (Lk 21: 34). "That day" is usually understood as the final day, the day of the coming of the Lord, but it can also be our final day. "You know not the day nor the hour." (Matt 24:36). Yes, we must be ready, and these four weeks of Advent call us to be alert and watchful of our behavior, our complacency, perhaps the drifting and slow shifting of values, the loosening up of self-discipline, the sliding into laxity in our prayer and liturgical lives, a neglect of charity in speech and action, a "drunkenness" in self-absortion and self-centeredness. No, we wouldn't want Jesus to show up suddenly and call us to account when we are off the track. Rather, let us keep vigil with Mary in her last month of pregnancy, so willing to step out of her comfort zone, so ready to accept the plan of God for her and her Son. Let us keep watch with Joseph, whose fidelity to his wife and the will of God called him to stretch beyond what he thought were his reasonable limits, into an unknown which demanded more strength and faith than he thought he possessed. Both Mary and Joseph were attentive to each other and to the overtures of God and in so doing enabled God himself to come into this world for the procurement of our salvation. May our hearts be vigilant and ready to respond to the calls we receive to be instruments of redemption in the lives of others. We may not be asked to trek on foot to register for the census in Jerusalem, but we are asked to take up the little, ordinary tasks of daily life as if we were doing them for the last time. Let us do so with attentiveness and vigilance.
Bro. Rene