First Advent

KEEP AWAKE

Today we celebrate a new liturgical season called Advent. Advent means coming or arrival. During this season we wait for the coming of the Lord. Yes, the Lord is coming and let us keep awake. Once a man was sleeping and he had a terrible…terrible dream. A lion was chasing him and while he was running, there came a tiger, running towards him and he was surrounded by so many ferocious animals and what should he do to escape from those ferocious animals? All he has to do is just awake up.

Today’s gospel invites us to keep awake because the Lord is coming. The Lord is not away to come back but the day will come, everybody can see Him with his or her naked eye. Faithful or unfaithful; good or bad and everyone will see Him as He is.

And so many people today struggle to recognize the presence of god in their midst. And so many people today struggle to keep awake themselves for the coming of the Lord. Once a man went to a barber shop and while the barber was cutting his hair and was trimming his beard, began to talk to him many things and at one point, there came a talk about God, the man said, “I don’t believe that God exists”. The man asked why. Because there are so many people today suffering from disease. And people are unhappy. If god exists there will be no suffering or pain in the world. The man did not want to argue with the barber because he had a big razor and a knife. When the man came out of the barber shop saw a man with dirty close with untrimmed beard and long uncut hair. Then he went back to the barber shop and said to the barber, “I don’t think barbers exist” the barber said, “I just now worked on you and how can you say barbers do not exist” look at outside, there is a man with untrimmed beard and uncut hair and the barber said, because he is not coming to the barber. The man looked at him and said, “exactly… god exists and people do not go to him when people go to God, there will be no sickness or pain or struggle in the world. When we recognize the presence of the Lord, then there will be no unhappiness and all we have to do is keep awake.

Once there was a famous prince who never went out of his palace. He was well protected in his palace but he always wanted to know what was outside of his palace and one night without the king’s knowledge, he escaped the palace and went into the city. He first met with an old man, he was surprised to see an old man and asked people why he was looking like that and people said, “we are all going to be old one day. It is a natural process of life” and then he met with a sick person and he was told people would get sick and it was part of life. Then the prince saw four people carrying a dead person and he asked what was going on, people said that every one has to die one day and this was not our permanent home. And then he saw a spiritual guru meditating under a tree. He asked people what he was doing and they said, “he was a spiritual man who helped people to find god” and then the prince left his kingship permanently and became a monk doing good for people and helping people to be awake. And his followers called him, “Buddha” means one who was awakened or illuminated.

Keep awake means loving god and listening to his words. Keep awake means helping others. And once a man went to a rabbi and said, “Rabbi, I want to be happy but all I do is fighting with my wife. What should I do? The rabbi said, “go home and for a month listen to everything she says” and after a month he came back and said, “I listen to everything she says” The rabbi looked at him and said, “now go home and listen to everything that she is not saying”.

Let us keep awake and prepare ourselves to welcome the lord into our homes, our work places and our lives and thus let us celebrate a meaningful and family Christmas this year also. Amen.