Word to the Wise
Saturday, December 1, 2018 - Saturday in the 34th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rev 22:1-7 and Luke 21:34-36]"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. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. [Luke]
Is it Advent already? Where has this year, month, day gone? Is life itself catching us by surprise? The commercial on TV seems to come true, "Life comes at you fast!" All of that and more may be found in Jesus' warning in today's gospel scripture. Maybe not that many of us are great at carousing or drunkenness but we all face the anxieties of daily life. Thinking about Jesus' second coming is not likely to be the Number #1 item on our list of anxieties. But Jesus' warning is not just about the future, it is also about the present. A Christian life requires discipline and some resistance to secular anxieties, important though some of them may be. In fact, the life of faith can be a great help in meeting those anxieties.
The great season of Advent offers an opportunity to take hold of the spirit of anticipation about the birth of Christ and not just about the secular celebration. The Advent wreath or the Jesse tree or other Christian symbols can make this an "intentional" Advent and not just an "accidental" one that catches us by surprise when we notice that the vestments at Mass are purple or we hear, for the first of many times, "O come, O come, Emmanuel" sung at Mass. Remembering "the reason for the season" can have the effect of putting perspective to all the anxieties that our culture creates. I hope we can overcome the anxieties and not let Advent catch us by surprise or the season be like a trap! The line in today's first scripture from Revelation, "Remember, I am coming soon!" can apply to this season as well as to a longer future. AMEN