As part of vigilance, we prepare. The 1st Reading speaks of God’s promise. He will fulfil His vow to Israel and Judah. On the side of God, it is certain that He will keep His promise. On our side, it is to be prepared for when that moment arrives. While St Paul highlights the preparation and diligence in terms of holiness and pleasing God, the Responsorial Psalm chimes in by letting us know the God will teach us His path which leads to holiness and pleasing Him.
When it comes to vigilance and preparation, why do we suffer from lapses?
A friend of mine used to tell me this—my memory is perfect but short. Basically, it was his get-out-of-gaol card that he uses every time he forgets to do what he had promised. It is true that our collective memory is short and for that reason, we frequently fail to learn from our past mistakes. History is condemned to repeat itself.
Man easily forgets and the history of Israel is a litany of her amnesia.
A way to forgetfulness is when we view vigilance as a feather in our cap, so much so that when we have become aware, we tend to let our guard down. There is an aspect within the Parable of the Sower that we may overlook. According to the narrative, some seed fall on the wayside. However we are too distracted by the productivity of the other seed that we overlook the fate of the seed that fall by the wayside. These wayside seed symbolise a form of inertia that is spiritually fatal. Those who are content to remain passive make it easy for the devil to pick them off.
Now imagine that everything you do in the Lord seems to be working for you. You attend Mass on Sundays and you dutifully send the children to Sunday catechism, donate to charity, are participative in Church-organised activities. You seem to have arrived and it is easy to think that nothing can touch you. Take it easy because everything appears good but is that enough.
The answer might surprise you but it comes from realm of prayer. We can be praying regularly and yet our prayers are dry. If we do not pray, dryness is at least understandable but why when we are praying and are serious about it, there does not seem to be any palpable affectivity, meaning that we feel nothing at all. Instead there is a deep sense that God is far away. God seems uncaring.
A spiritual director once remarked that such dryness is not a sign of God’s absence but could be an invitation to “duc in altum”, that is, put out into the deep. God is inviting the soul into a deeper relationship with Him. It is an invitation to leave behind the feelings of God, good as they are, in order to embrace the God of feelings. It is a challenge to trust in God for He wants us to progress further into our relationship with Him.
Vigilance is an attentiveness to the promptings of God to enter His space. But the Devil would prefer for us to remain superficial in our relationship with God—to be the seed that fall by the wayside. It benefits him because it makes his work of damnation much easier. The more passive we are, the better for the Devil.
Securing our relationship with God is mirrored in our experience of friendship. We progress from mere acquaintance to friendship. To get there, we exchange our life stories with our new-found friend. There is a natural progression in the path of friendship to enter further into surrender and trust. But how many of us are afraid? We fear losing because the other party cannot be trusted. Since we are fearful, we tend towards superficiality.
Christ invites us to a vigilance that is not superficial. However, in this invitation, He will not and He cannot remove us from trials or tribulations especially as our friendship with Him develops. This is an inconvenient truth because we tend to harbour a notion that relationship with the Lord will shield us from troubles and pain. If anything, relationship with Christ always entails an uphill climb to Calvary. St Teresa of Avila’s gentle retort to Christ is spot on for us. It may be a tongue-in-check reply but it reveals the truth. She was nearly swept away while crossing a river but Christ sustained her and she in her typical manner asked Him when He would stop messing about. His reply that He treats His friends as such only drew a quick retort that maybe it explains His lack of friends.
This anecdote teaches us that despite troubles Christ is never far away even though He would allow us to be tested terribly. Thus, it is part of vigilance to pray for strength and believe that He will keep his promise to us. Vigilance is always keeping our eyes fixed and our hearts focused on Him in good times or in bad.
