No substitute For Vigilance

Reflection on Lk. 12:35-38

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Vigilance! Vigilance! Vigilance! This is what the Lord Jesus is stressing in the Gospel today. He is reminding His disciples of His First Coming (Christmas) and preparing them for His Second Coming (Day of Judgment). There was a time when God became one like us, in Jesus Christ, in order to save mankind. The Jews were told about this through different messages from the prophets. The Jews were called to prepare for that First Coming. Unfortunately, that First Coming came in an unexpected manner. They believed that God will come like a great warrior from heaven and one by one annihilate the forces of evil. But God did not come that way. He came on a silent night and a holy night. Jesus was not recognized by the Jews as the promised messiah. That is why there are still Jews today who await the Messiah! But for us, Jesus is the messiah who fulfilled the promises made in the Old Times times.

As Jesus said in the Gospel accounts, the Second Coming will be so swift that you do not have time to go down from the roof or go home from the field. It will be in an unexpected manner; like a thief in the night. The Lord Jesus would not want us to just act when the time is near. The element of not knowing when He would come is for our own good. As human beings, we tend to procrastinate some of the things we want to do and wait for the last opportunity to come. We can not cram our relationship with God. Relationship with God can not be deepened in an instant. Salvation can not just be decided on last minute decisions. Not knowing when the Lord will come will help us actively anticipate His coming. We are encouraged to pray, do acts of charity, and make sacrifices while we are waiting. So that when the Lord comes, He will recognize us and invite us to join Him to His Father in heaven. St. Paul, in his letter to the early Christians admonished them to continue their lives and not to abandon everything for prayer and passive waiting in temples. For him, waiting is living your daily life in the Spirit of the Lord. He went as far as decreeing that those who will not work will not eat in order to stress his point.

As a line in a song says, " We may never pass this way again. Whatever good we must do; we must do it now!" We must live our lives according to the purpose of God here and now. There is urgency in fulfilling what God wanted us to achieve. This is what Christian vigilance is about. We are good servants who patiently and enthusiastically await our Master. When He comes, we would be happy to present to Him that all He had expected us to do had been done. When He comes, we would humbly tell Him that we just did what He commanded. When He comes, we are ready to do whatever He will further command. The vigilant Christian has the satisfaction of his Master always in mind.

Twice a year this is being reminded of us in a very special way. During Lent, we enter into a reflective zone. we examine ourselves and see how we stand before the Lord. We anticipate the celebration of the triumph of the Lord Jesus in His Resurrection. We re-affirm our commitment to Him who merited for us eternal life even when we were still sinners. His dying on the cross was His ultimate act of fulfilling His Father's Will and gaining for us our freedom from sin. During Advent, we again enter into another reflective atmosphere. This time, we trace back the events before the birth of the Lord Jesus and identified ourselves with the people of Israel who were aching for the coming of the Messiah. Maranatha ("Come, Lord Jesus!) was their prayer. It was an expression of their longing for the their God who they felt abandoned them when they were in captivity. But, later, God heard their prayer. Jesus was born to bring good tidings and peace to mankind. In both events, vigilance was exercised by God's people. There is no doubt about His coming. There were always doubt whether He would find His people eagerly awaiting His coming. There were doubts about the worthiness of His people when He comes. This is the point of Jesus when He told His disciples to be vigilant. He wanted that when He comes, we are prepared and worthy. There is no substitute for it.