The strawberry
In today’s Gospel passage from Mark we’re told to be alert, to stay awake. But what are we to stay awake for? We’re to stay awake for the coming of the Lord. If we’re sleepwalking our way through life, we’ll miss it. So, the coming of the Lord, when does that happen? Well, the Lord already came two thousand years ago. We celebrate that coming at Christmas. Advent invites us to slow down enough so we don’t miss out on the true meaning of Christmas, the Lor’s coming. And the Lord will come again at the end of time. We don’t know when this is but over the centuries there are those who thought they knew when that was. Like,n the early Middle Ages there was an order of monks who were so certain that the Lord ‘s coming could happen at any day that every night they posted two monks who were to stay up all night to let the others know that it was happening. And nor do we know when the Lord will come to take us home on the day we die. We don’t know when that is. But I will say when you get older like I am, you can narrow it down a bit. So, if I got another twenty years, I’d be good with that because 96 is not that young! But it’s not just in the past that the Lord came. Nor is it just in the future that he will come. The Lord’s coming is for right now. The problem is if we’re sleepwalking our way through life, we’ll miss it. But if we can stay awake, we’ll see him, the Lord with us in the ordinary of life. Maybe that’s what Jesuit priest Anthony DeMello meant when he said, “All spirituality can be summed up in three words, awareness, awareness, awareness. If Christmas celebrates the Lord’s first coming, Advent is the alarm clock that invites us to stay awake to celebrate the Lord’s coming in the ordinary of life. The Christ who was born in time and who will come at the end of time is with us all the time. If sleepwalking our way through life has us missing out on what life is really about what is needed so we don’t miss out on life? There’s the story of a guy in the mountains who’s being chased by a grizzly bear. He comes to a cliff, slips and is hanging with one hand to a vine that’s ready to break. And down below is another grizzly licking his chops waiting for him to fall. But just then the guy notices a small strawberry bush. So, he reaches over and eats one of the strawberries. He smiles and says, “I believe that ‘s about the sweetest strawberry I’ve ever tasted.” If you’re waiting for the punch life to this story there is none other than to say, like with th strawberry, how incredibly sweet life can be if we can wake up from our sleepwalking and live in the present moment. So, this week, stay awake. The Lord’s coming is happening in the ordinary of life. So, look for the strawberry. It’s there waiting for you to reach out and grab it. Taste it and see just how sweet life can be even in the chaos when it feels like you’re hanging from a cliff with the grizzly below licking his chops.
