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Watch, Pray, and Live

by Pope Francis

By December 16, 2019November 23rd, 2023No Comments

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Advent is the time that is given to us to welcome the Lord who comes to meet us, to verify our desire for God, to look ahead and prepare ourselves for Christ’s return.

He will return to us on the feast of Christmas. However, he [also] comes within us every time we are disposed to receive him. Therefore, we must always be vigilant and wait for the Lord with the hope of meeting him.

Jesus exhorts us in the Gospel (Cf. Mark 13:33-37) to take heed and watch, to be ready to receive him the moment of his return. He says to us: Take heed, watch and pray, for you do not know when the time will comelest He come suddenly and find you asleep (vv. 33-36).

The person that takes heed is one who, in the noise of the world, doesn’t let himself be overwhelmed by distraction or by superficiality, but lives in a full and aware way with concern, first of all, for others.

With this attitude, we are aware of the tears and the needs of our neighbor, and we can also grasp his human and spiritual capacities and qualities.

The person that heeds then turns also to the world, trying to counter the indifference and cruelty in it and rejoicing over the treasures of beauty that also exist and are guarded.

Heedfulness is about having a look of understanding either to recognize the miseries and poverties of individuals and societies or to recognize the richness hidden in little everyday things, precisely there, where the Lord has placed us.

The vigilant person is the one who receives the invitation to watch, namely, not to let himself be overcome by the sleep of discouragement, of lack of hope, of disappointment and, at the same time, rejects the solicitation of the many vanities that overflow in the world and behind which, sometimes, personal and family time and serenity are sacrificed.

It is the painful experience of the people of Israel, recounts the prophet Isaiah: God seemed to have left his people wander far from his ways (Cf. 63:17), but this was an effect of the infidelity of the people themselves (Cf. 64:4b).

We also often find ourselves in this situation of infidelity to the Lord’s call: He indicates to us the good way, the way of faith, the way of love, but we look for our happiness elsewhere.

To be heedful and vigilant are the assumptions not to continue wandering far from the Lord’s ways, lost in our sins and in our infidelities. To be heedful and to be vigilant are the conditions to enable God to break into our existence, to restore meaning and value to it with his presence full of goodness and tenderness.

May Mary Most Holy, model of waiting for God and icon of vigilance, guide us to encounter her Son Jesus, reviving our love for Him.

Excerpted from the pope’s Angelus Address, December 3, 2018

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