Stay awake and watch

This Sunday marks the beginning of Advent – a time of waiting and watching, for the coming of Christ at Christmas.

The Gospel is a stark reminder for us all.

The homilist reminds us of the analogy that Jesus uses to explain – “It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.”

And we all have our life’s work to be done.

Some of us are tasked to be husbands, wives, professionals, entrepreneurs, leaders, religious etc and only we can discern for ourselves what God intends of our lives.

We are tasked to do our best in our vocations and live authentic Christian lives so that we are ready to face the Lord when the time is up.

So let’s support each other in our communities, stay awake and watch.

Let’s pray that we make this Christmas a meaningful one too. Most likely there will be less celebrations, shopping and even going to mass might be a challenge for some of us. But this should not detract from the main message that we rejoice for the birth of our Lord.

In fact stripping away the gaudy materialistic and secular sensitivities around this special day might be a good way to remind us of the true importance of Christmas.