Am I Ready to Meet the Lord? … The First Sunday of Advent. (A Sunday Meditation)

***

Think about how often we forget things – whether it’s something small like our keys or a person’s name, or something bigger like an anniversary. 

I’ll be the first to admit, I can be terribly forgetful.

Growing up, the one thing I’d sometimes forget was my homework. More often than not, it wasn’t that I forgot to bring it to school; I simply forgot to do it.

I still remember the moment my teacher would go around collecting it. I’d have that sinking feeling in my stomach – like, “uh-oh.”  

Even though I knew I didn’t have it, I’d still bend over the edge of my seat and give my backpack a good shake, as if it’d magically fall out.

Meanwhile, I’d be preparing a thousand excuses as to why I didn’t have it, as if my teacher would believe me. 

“My dog ate it!… I left it on the counter!… Somebody stole it!”

It never worked. It was only my fault. Some days, I was simply unprepared.

***

It’s that sinking feeling of being unprepared that Jesus warns us about in today’s Gospel. 

He’s finally reached the end of his public ministry. And before he hands himself over to death, he answers one of his disciples’ most pressing questions, “When is the world going to end?”

“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man,” Jesus says. “In those days, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.”

Life seemed normal. Then the flood came.

In other words, we know neither the day nor the hour of Christ’s return. We must live each day in a state of anticipation.

This doesn’t mean living in fear or anxiety; rather the opposite. We must be at peace – with ourselves and with one another, which sometimes demands the hard work of reconciliation.

We who live in a constant state of readiness – of peace – shall rejoice when the Lord returns.

But those who are unprepared – those whose hearts are filled with darkness, lust, and jealousy as Saint Paul says in our second reading – will have that sinking feeling in their stomach…

…like trying to make homework fall magically out of an empty backpack.

***

Have we done our homework? If Christ were to return now, would we be ready to meet him?

Or is our backpack empty, so to speak?

***

There’s no doubt that these remaining weeks leading up to Christmas will be filled with their share of anxiety: shopping, decorating, cooking, and card writing.

But if we don’t enter into some level of silence and reflect upon our relationship with Christ, then we’ve missed the whole point of Advent, which is intended to be a time of spiritual reflection.

***

Perhaps, then, we should consider two points.

Just as I could not do my homework the moment it was being collected, so we cannot grow in our relationship with Christ at the moment of his return.

We must do it now. Advent is here.

Secondly, just as I couldn’t borrow a friend’s homework, so we cannot borrow someone else’s relationship with God. We each have our own. That’s what we’re held accountable to.

So how can I deepen my own relationship with the Lord this Advent?

***

In the midst of the commercial craze of Christmas, Advent reminds us to slow down, enter into the silence, and examine our own spiritual lives, considering things like:

“Where is the light at work in me? And where is there darkness taking over?”

***

We know neither the day nor the hour, but the world will come to an end. When Christ returns, all that will matter is whether or not we’re prepared.

Let’s do our homework. 

Come, Lord Jesus.