November 27, 2011: First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37
Just recently I saw the movie Awakenings, based on a true story of neurologically impaired hospital patients who had been unable to interact with the world in any meaningful way for many years. These patients sat in their wheelchairs doing nothing, day after day, many of them unable to talk, eat or walk. Though these people were alive, they were practically catatonic because of their inability to engage in any meaningful way with their environment.
Then, due to the introduction of a new medication championed by their doctor, these same patients seemed to miraculously “wake up.” All of a sudden, as a result of having taken this medication, these patients were able to interact with other people and with the world in ways that had been impossible for them for many years. The doctor in the movie called one patient’s new-found alertness and functionality an “awakening”, for it was though he had been asleep for many years with his severe neurological impairment. Now this patient recognized his mom, he enjoyed seeing the sunshine and the trees and he developed friendships with other people.
The movie seems to say that there is a definite connection between what it means to be human and our capacity to relate to people and the world, and that when we are unable to engage in meaningful ways with others and our environment, our personhood is somehow reduced. The medication that helped the patients to “awaken” led to their discovering joy in their interactions and contributed to their feeling more alive than they had for years.
In today’s gospel reading from Mark, Jesus advises his disciples to, “Keep awake.” Notice that Jesus doesn’t tell his disciples to “Wake up”; the implication is they are already awake and they need to remain so. For what reason is Jesus telling his disciples to remain alert? For the writer of the gospel of Mark, Jesus’ second coming was going to happen very soon, and the early Christian community needed to prepare themselves for this second arrival of Jesus.
This same passage is used at the beginning of Advent, a time when we begin to prepare ourselves for the Incarnation of Jesus. We need to be fully awake and alert to allow the birth of Jesus to take place in our hearts. Those of us who are prone to nod off or to get distracted by other things might find ourselves missing the significance of this very important event: that God thought enough of us human beings to become one of us.
As we learn to keep awake, as we learn to stay alert to the coming of Jesus in our lives, we open ourselves to becoming more fully human, because we allow the One who became incarnate out of love for us to touch our hearts at their deepest core. We recognize that we are not alone in this journey we call life; that there is one who has gone before us who will lead the way for us because he loves us. Because God became a man in the person of Jesus, it is with great dignity we can claim our own humanity, and thus know the joy of being alive.