First Sunday of Advent (November 27^th 2011)      

Mark 13:33-37

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Is keeping vigil a dread-filled experience, or does it involve the thrill of waiting for something wonderful to happen?

2. Is keeping vigil over the property of the master a frightening experience, or does it involve being entrusted with life-giving power?

3. Do I keep watch over the right and wrong aspects of my life, or do I live haphazardly, exercising no discernment over the direction of my life?

4. Who is my real master? Who do I "keep vigil for"? The things that this life has to offer, or Christ?

Is keeping vigil a dread-filled experience, or does it involve the thrill of waiting for something wonderful to happen?

We start the adventure of the new liturgical year with this passage from the Gospel that asks us to wake up. "Be on your guard. Stay awake!" we are told. To stay awake or to keep vigil sounds like hard work! Parents of newly-borns are sleep deprived and - as they can testify - it is not a very pleasant experience! On the face of it, this Gospel seems like an invitation to tension and anguish. Are we to feel threatened by the fact that we don't know at which exact moment the Lord will come? Do we have the sense that this Gospel is weighing us down with negative feelings towards the future?

            The funny thing is that, when it comes to entertainment, we love tension and suspense! We watch thrillers avidly, we love suspense-stories, we revel when there are spine-tingling twists and turns in the plot! Waiting to see what will happen with bated breath is extremely entertaining in these situations. Why so? Because we feel that something important is going to happen and we can't wait to find out what it is.

            Similarly, to understand this Gospel we must learn the art of waiting for something momentous to happen. A biblical figure that has much to teach us in this art of waiting is Simeon in the Gospel of St Luke. He waits all of his life to hold the child that is the fulfilment of the promises of the Lord. Simeon was a master in the art of knowing how to wait for something good.

To keep vigil over the property of the master is to be entrusted with power

In the passage of the Gospel that we reflect on this Sunday, the master leaves his house to go on a journey, gives each servant a particular task, and asks the doorman to stay awake. What does it mean to stay awake and wait for the return of the master? In this case, to stay awake is equivalent to being entrusted with power. The master has left his very own property in the care of the servants. Staying awake in this case does not involve taking huge doses of caffeine and waiting with anguish for something terrible to happen! Instead, staying awake means being attentive to the precious things that we have been entrusted with. It means being bestowed with the power of God and with the responsibility to exercise it fruitfully. To stay awake means to perform the wonderful task that we have been given.

To be entrusted with the role of watchman is to be given the amazing authority to make choices between right and wrong in our lives

The job of the doorman is usually to stay at the entrance and decide who can enter and who cannot. Thus, to be a doorman is to exercise the power of selection. It is to make a decision about what is good and right, and what is not. What an amazing duty! What an interesting life! Being awake in this sense is not a tension-filled state of mind, but to be alive, to be people entrusted with power to make positive decisions in life. Staying awake, being attentive to what is good and right, is the very thing that gives dignity to our lives. Our master has given his own power to us; he has given us wonderful tasks to do; and he has given us the authority to say yes or no to what we allow to enter our lives.

            What kind of life would it be if we were not to exercise this power? The opposite of staying awake is to fall asleep; to be, in a sense, switched off, and not to do anything of significance. The origin of the word "depraved" means to live a life that "does not put things to the proof"; in other words to live without distinguishing the good from the bad; to live haphazardly  without giving significance or profundity to the things we do.

In the Bible, keeping vigil is always linked to the wait for the liberating coming of the Lord

We do not know when the master will return, in the evening, at dawn, or at midday. These are the traditional times of the changing of the guard. What do they refer to in the Gospel? In the biblical world, keeping vigil is always liked to the Passover. "This night shall henceforth and for all time be a night of vigil for my people". The Lord comes in order to liberate! This is why it is important to be "awake" and to be attentive to the things of the Lord, instead of being busy doing things that are meaningless.

Who is my real master? Who do I "keep vigil for"- the things that this life has to offer, or Christ?

It is very important to keep in mind that the master of all things is someone else, and not myself. This is not demeaning for us, but it is the simple dose of reality that all of us need. We are not masters of our lives, and we must await the arrival of the real master. We are not the ultimate meaning of things; that ultimate meaning can only come from God. And we must prepare ourselves for encounter with this ultimate truth of our lives. This is not something negative, but something beautiful and liberating to reflect upon.

            If I seek the final meaning of things within myself, then I fall hopelessly short. I am insufficient in myself to provide an ultimate answer for my own existence. To find that answer, Christ must be my master and Christ must be the one that I keep vigil for. What use is it to stay vigilant for the paltry recompense that this life has to offer! Am I overly-vigilant for the attention or good-opinion of others? What I should be vigilant for, instead, is my relationship with Jesus. That is what gives sense to my life. My whole existence is a journey towards him. I must measure every aspect of my existence against him because he is my true master.

            You know, a Christian should not be shy to say this openly every now and then! I answer only to Jesus, not to a world that threatens me and tries to make me conform to an impoverished image of humanity; a world that is incredibly vain and wallows in the banal. My master is not the world but Jesus. It is He, and He alone, that gives sense to my life.