There’s “awake”, and there’s “awake.” We know what awake—that is, not being asleep—is. We spend most of our life in that condition, generally aware of what is going on around us and responding as appropriate. But when, in today’s gospel, Jesus urges us to “Keep awake,” it seems he has something deeper in mind. Take a moment and listen to Jesus speaking to you today. Can you hear the call to be more expectant of and more attentive to the divine Presence in the world around us, to be alert to the myriad and surprising ways that Presence is manifested throughout creation?

How do we respond to Jesus’ injunction to “Keep awake”? The season of Advent provides the opportunity for us to realize our need to pay attention to our relationship with Christ Jesus, to rebalance our priorities to include the “unseen” as well as the “seen” that tends to occupy most of our daily existence. As we prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ Incarnation, all the while anticipating his coming again, can we focus on what that means for us today?

In his earthly ministry, Jesus asked his followers, “Who do you say that I am?” (Mt.16:15) Christ Jesus continues to ask that of each of us. If the answer easily rolls off our tongue, we likely have not delved very deeply into the mystery of God’s love. If it’s the same answer we’ve had for twenty years or more, it may mean that we aren’t growing in our relationship with Christ Jesus, that we remain half-asleep in the comfortable rut of the status quo of our spiritual life. If that’s true for us, Advent is the time to wake up, to allow God to stretch us, to make room in the inn of our hearts for Divine Love to shine forth through us into the darkness of our cold, winter world.