NOW IS THE TIME TO AWAKE OUT OF SLEEP

A MESSAGE FOR ADVENT SUNDAY

Sleep is a wonderful thing.  Every night as we go round the house locking the doors and turning off the lights, the very last thing we do is go to sleep and switch ourselves off.  As we sleep, our batteries of energy are recharged so that when morning comes we are ready to face another day with whatever it brings.  When we’re sick, sleep allows us to heal and rejuvenate.  When we’re depressed, bereaved, or sorrowing for whatever reason, it is in sleep that we find our refuge from the grief and heartache of the world, at least for a short time.

Sleep has another significance for us sometimes, especially when we indulge our bodies with too much of it.  This is the vice of sloth, and ranges in gravity from merely hitting the snooze button too many times to spending one’s day in worthless inactivity snoozing on the sofa in front of the TV.  But whether we sleep the well-deserved rest of the blessed, or merely toss and turn in a lazy stupor, all sleep has this in common, that while our eyes are closed we cannot see, and while our consciousness switch is in the “off” position, we are not aware of what is going on around us.  Indeed, we are oblivious to all reality, both trivial and essential.

St. Paul’s Epistle today does not differentiate between good sleep and bad sleep, but refers to our ignorance of the events around us.  St. Paul, to put it plainly, tells us to “wake up!”

We wake up this first Sunday in Advent to find a brave new world in a fresh liturgical year.  Yesterday, when we fell asleep, we put behind us all the events of Christ’s life and its tale of redemption.  While we slept they disappeared as all dreams do.  This morning we awoke to a new reality, a new dream of redemption that is to be fulfilled when Christ is born in Bethlehem, during the 33 years of his life, and in his Passion, Death and Resurrection.  We turn our attention now to this new yet familiar future as the Liturgical Year spreads out before us, showing us yet again the path we must follow if we wish to reach heaven and save our souls.  If your eyes are still a bit blurry, wake up!

As you are leaving Mass today, be sure to pick up your 2018 Catholic calendar.  It will provide you with all the information you need to stay close to your pathway to heaven in the spirit of the Church.  No Catholic family should be without its church calendar, prominently displayed where mother and father can easily prepare for each season, each important event in their spiritual life.  Of equal importance, they can teach the children how to refer daily to the calendar and make appropriate prayer to God and the saints of the day, avoiding meat and excess food when required, attending Mass when obligatory, and entering into the spirit of the Church on a daily basis.  This is how, every day of the year, the whole family may “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”