Gospel: Mark
13:33-37
Jesus
said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time
will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his
servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on
the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is
coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the
morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I
say to all: ‘Watch!’”
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Reflection:
What does
it mean to be watchful? It means to always be prepared and alert for anything
that may happen or arrive. But why do we need to be watchful? Why not simply become
passive and complacent? We need to be watchful because this is what Jesus wants
us to become for He will manifest His presence to us at any moment of our
lives.
Why did
Jesus told the disciples to be watchful when He was still with them? Jesus was
actually preparing already His disciples for His eventual arrest and separation
from them. And as they do their mission without Him, they should always do it
with vigor, motivation and with clean intention. For He may manifest Himself
again to them anytime, therefore they must never be complacent and passive.
Today is
the first Sunday of advent, this means coming or arrival of something very
important. What is the significance of this command of Jesus for us? We too are
being encouraged by Jesus to be watchful and prepared for His coming. But how should we prepare?
First is
by submitting ourselves to the Healing Sacrament of Reconciliation or
Confession. All of us are sinful; we sin through our Thoughts, Words
and Actions. These many sins that we commit make us ill-prepared for
the coming of Jesus.
Second is
we have to forgive those who caused us pain, if this tells us that we have to reach-out to them in humility so be it. This is very
difficult to do but if we say that we know Jesus then we must be prepared to
embody Jesus. By doing so we bring Jesus to them and who knows it may
be through us that they will have an awareness of the living presence of Jesus
in their lives.
Are we
prepared to be watchful? - Marino J. Dasmarinas