She was only
about 4 or 5 years old. My wife and I
had just put her and her sisters to bed and were sitting downstairs in the
living room, reading or watching TV before going to bed ourselves, and our
middle daughter, like I said 4 or 5 years old, appeared in the room. She wandered across the room and my wife said
“Colleen what are you doing up?” No
response. She just kept walking. “I don’t think she hears you,” I said. “I think she’s asleep.” This despite her eyes being wide open, but
the blank look on her face clued me in.
“Colleen, wake up,” I called to her. Still nothing. So I went over and picked her up. Carried her upstairs, kissed her and put her
back in bed and she closed her eyes and rolled over.
Colleen was, of course,
sleepwalking, and had no recollection of this the next morning. She actually did this a number of times and thankfully,
eventually outgrew it. Well sleepwalking
is what came to mind as I was meditating on these readings for this First
Sunday of Advent.
As an aside, I was looking for a
sleepwalking joke to begin this homily in honor of Father Jack Rosse, who
usually began his homilies with a joke or funny story, and the only one I could
find went something like this – what do you call a sleepwalking nun? A Roamin’ Catholic. Get it? Roaming! Sorry about that.
But while googling to find this little
joke, I read quite a bit about sleepwalking and learned that it’s no laughing
matter. All kinds of stories about
people wandering off, sound asleep, getting lost, or hurt, or worse. Dangerous thing, sleepwalking.
And in our spiritual lives,
sleepwalking is dangerous, too.
Many of us are sort of sleepwalking
in our spiritual lives some of the time, some of us most of the time, and we
may wind up lost, or hurt or worse. It
may look like we’re awake but we’re going through the motions. We may claim to be Christians, to be
Catholic, to be disciples of Jesus Christ, but there’s really nothing in our
lives that looks any different than anyone else. Than anyone who’s not a disciple of Jesus
Christ.
Or perhaps we’re not exactly asleep
but we’re listless and without energy in our faith. You see, you and I run the very real risk of
becoming complacent in our spiritual lives, of not being intentional in our
faith, not being intentional disciples of Jesus Christ. And what happens is we let ourselves take on
the worldly culture around us. We may
take on the attitudes of rampant consumerism and greed, or perhaps the sexual
mores, or the maybe negativity of the secular world around us. Perhaps very subtly, very slowly over time,
until we don’t even realize how we’ve changed.
Kind of like a frog in a pot of water.
If a frog is plunged into boiling hot water it will have the good sense
to hop out. But if the frog is placed in
cold water and it’s steadily heated to boiling, the frog will boil too, not
even realizing that the water’s gotten hot.
So it is with you and with me, my
sisters and brothers. As an example, our
Holy Father, Pope Francis wrote this week that you and I may not even realize
that we’ve become pervaded by consumerism, afflicted with, quote, “the desolation
and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverous pursuit of
frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience.” Unquote In this Apostolic
Exhortation, Pope Francis joins with the loud and clear call of both St. Paul
and Our Blessed Lord in today’s readings:
“Wake Up!” Wake up. And if we’re awake – stay awake. Don’t become complacent, don’t go back to
sleep.
“It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep,” St. Paul
writes to the Romans. “for our salvation
is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at
hand. Let us then throw off the works of
darkness and put on the armor of light.”
Indeed, on this first day of
the new liturgical year, this first Sunday of Advent, you and I are being
called to wake from whatever spiritual sleep envelopes us. To prepare our hearts to receive Him anew
and come into our hearts once again.
A time, a season to become more intentional
disciples of Jesus Christ. And what does
that look like? It means that every
decision in your life and in mine is ordered toward Him and Him alone, who is
Lord and Savior. Ordered toward my
relationship with Jesus Christ and informed by the teaching of His Church. Every decision – what I do with my time, what
I watch on TV or the internet, what I do with the talents and treasure God has
given me. It means taking fuller
advantage of the sacraments – getting to confession regularly or maybe getting
to Mass during the week. If definitely
means carving time out of each day to pray.
If you and I are intentional
disciples of Jesus Christ, your life and mine will look very different to
everyone around us than if we did not believe in Him. We will live more in peace, and much more
joyfully, and our faith, our lives, will attract others to the Lord.
This New Years Day in the Church is
a wonderful day to make some spiritual resolutions. A time to wake from our spiritual sleep. To recognize all the ways in which that pot
of water has become boiling around us and make a decision to hop out of that
pot, out of the boiling water.
For the Lord is coming. He’s coming on Christmas morn. He’s coming at the end of time. And He’s coming at the end of your and my
days here on earth.
My brothers and sisters, let us be
truly prepared to meet Him when He comes.
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