Alertness (2011-11-27 Advent)

This is my homily for Sunday 27 November 2011. I am a Catholic chaplain in Teaneck at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) campus and for the FDU Newman Catholic Association. We celebrate Catholic Mass - during Fall and Spring semester - every Sunday Mass (7:30 p.m.) at the Interfaith Chapel, 842 River Road, Teaneck, NJ.

[_01_] This Sunday is the First Sunday of the Season Advent.
Knowing that we have a particular deadline or departure time, we do things in advance for –

• Academic examinations
• Performances and rehearsals
• Job interviews.
• Thanksgiving Dinner
• The Introduction of the Roman Missal, 3rd Edition.

Certain deadlines will keep us awake, in the night or the day.

However, we also feel comfort, ease confidence .. when we are prepared.

The opposite may also be the case, such as …
• Being awakened from a deep sleep by an alarm clock at home
• Being awakened from a deep sleep when we are trying to be a good student, a good listener, but we fall asleep in class.
• Being awakened, becoming aware of something we have missed. Maybe, for example, we are not actually asleep but distracted and we forget where we should turn, where to go, what to do next.

[_02_] Whether we are driving down Fifth Avenue, River Edge or trying to survive a Physics lecture, or even Thanksgiving Dinner, we may fall asleep or lose our focus.

In such a case, we resemble the servants of the parable who are left in charge of the house, the gate, the door, the garden. They know not when the master of the house is returning. Easy for them to fall asleep, to lose their focus.

[_03_] Sometimes, we may also to lose our focus, or find ourselves awakened suddenly.

Today the First Sunday of the weeks of Advent, 4 weeks in which we are preparing to celebrate Christmas, and also remembering that Jesus arrived not only once in Bethlehem but he will arrive again at the end of our lives.


[_04_] I’d like to suggest that we go through certain phases of alertness.
Sometimes, we go through the motions…

Going through the motions….

Isn’t it true that certain actions may not require our complete attention such as the difference between the COLD faucet and the HOT faucet in the kitchen sink. (Hot on the left, cold on the right, correct?) Or the difference between the stove and the refrigerator. I don’t need Google maps or GPS to get me there.

However, if we move to a new country or new environment, we may not take things for granted. Or, if we are taking care of someone else’s home, someone else’s property, we are called to attentiveness, alertness about where certain things are located and how certain tasks are accomplished.

In the parable, we might say that the servants are going through the external visible actions. Or, perhaps, they are sleepwalking.

Wouldn’t they seem to be more focused on the objects in the house than on the person who owns the house?

This Advent, we are also called to focus more on the person of Christ rather than on the many objects of the Christmas season, some of which may not be very Christian at
all.

And, even in our everyday lives, keep the person in mind, in view.

Yes, we have many deadlines, exams, interviews.

But all of these things have a personal aspect.

A mother/father/husband/wife meets deadlines and makes commitments not for some object but for the good of the person(s) in the family.

And, just as God has made us as persons in his image and likeness, we are called to see that image in others. Sometimes, that image may be hard to recognize or easy to ignore.

We may miss that image when are very focused on an object, the object of our own pleasure, reputation, popularity, wealth.

But, in looking for this image in others, we are also staying awake for the coming of our Lord who arrives not on the 12/25 deadline but at every day and at every door.

[_fin_]