From
the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts
forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see
these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates… But
about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son,
but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the
time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home
and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper
to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the
master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow,
or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And
what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake. (Mark 13:28-29, 32-37)
Our
neighbour grew a fig tree at our boundary, outside our kitchen window. And true enough, it produces leaves, then
fruit, signalling summer. I for one am
grateful for these simple signposts. From
the fig tree learn its lesson… The
lesson according to Jesus is, Wake up! He
is very much in favour of being awake. Some
years ago I was staying with my cousin and her German family in Freiburg. They had two hefty sons in late
adolescence. And one morning I heard
their mother getting them out of bed – she called Wachet Auf! – Wake
Up! It took me by surprise because that
is the title of an old German Advent hymn, which Bach set to a famous chorale. The hymn pictures the watchmen on the
ramparts, needing to be awake, straining to see the first light of dawn. Stay awake, Jesus repeats… you don’t
know what is going to happen… be alert!
The last thing you want is to be found asleep.
Jesus
links this need for wakefulness with knowing what the time[1]
is, as we say – what is going on… summer is near… Sometimes we don’t know what day of the week
it is. I have another cousin, a lovely
person, who has no idea what is going on in the world, or why it’s happening,
never pays attention to the news, has nothing to say if you mention particular people
or events. At the same time, her
up-to-date knowledge of local people and gossip is encyclopaedic. Well, perhaps her charism, as we say, is more
local and social than global and political.
In
discipleship, awake means also being alert to the effect our words and actions
have on other people. In the silence and
stillness of contemplative life and prayer we increase our sensitivity to how
others are feeling and reacting. We
learn to suspend reaction or response, but rather to be silent and still, and
to wait. We take leave of any need to
respond verbally to everything we see or hear, especially with stories of what
happened to me… because we are awake, first, to the other person’s struggle and
the load they bear, not so much with solutions as with presence, and with God
who is the healer. So the prayer we
practise, for all its stillness and silence, in fact wakes us up. We are ready to listen, compliant to change,
humbler, better equipped, open rather than defensive, less afraid of life…
Mark
recorded these sayings at a time when the believers widely expected Jesus would
return at any time. We are long past
that. But Jesus’s requirements remain –
you don’t ever know what is around the corner.
Being awake is quite a good idea… rather than day-dreaming, living in
dreams and fantasies, dining out on memories, or living in fear. Being awake is being in touch with reality,
with the facts of life and death, and with presence and grace of God in it all.
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