WAKE UP!

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 22 Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Wake Up!”

In spirituality and in psychology, in prayer and mediation, in various religions, a theme that pops up from time to time is, “Awakening!”

As Catholics we hear about it every year in Advent.

And here it is this morning in today’s first reading. Paul is telling the folks at Thessalonica - as he’ll tell the folks in Rome, “It’s time to wake up.” [1]

Wake up!

QUESTION

What have been the wake up calls in my life?

Was it a teacher or a coach that burst our balloon or ego bubble, who said, “Wake up or you’re going to fail!” or “Unless you show some improvement, you’re going to be sitting on the bench every game!”

Or was it not making the team - or being dumped by someone you fell in love with? Or was it a cancer scare or a death or a loss of a job?

What have been the wake up calls in my life?

Wake up!

BUDDHA

The Buddha found the light - the inner eye opener - the answer - the secret - in the middle way - while sitting under the Bodhi tree. And his life was different from then on - in and out. He had had it all. He gave away it all. He discovered light in the center of the seesaw. He saw riches and he saw poverty. He saw being young and he saw being old and losing it all slowly. He woke up. He saw and he could see through everything - that desire is what kills us. I want my way or it’s the high way - and that’s not the way it works. Remove desire and you remove unhappiness. Aha! Now I see! [2]

TREES

The Christian could sit under the tree of the cross - the Seeing Tree - and discover enlightenment. He or she could say just what the centurion said there on Calvary - the same thing the man with unclean spirits saw and said in today’s gospel. “I know who you are: the Holy One of God.”

The Christian could sit under the tree of the cross - the Seeing Tree - and discover that it doesn’t end the way I thought it was going to end. It took the disciples a bunch of days and a bunch of experiences and a lot of letting go after Good Friday to discover that - to see that.

The Christian could sit under the tree of the cross - the Seeing Tree - and discover that unless I learn to forgive - I’m not going to be okay. Can I see and then say what Jesus saw and said from the cross, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” If I can see that, I am seeing the power of resurrection that is possible in forgiveness - because forgiveness calls for the humble crumble of ego.

Sitting under the tree of the cross - the Seeing Tree - gets us to the roots of reality - and Christ the Risen One - can get us to rise and follow him - and continue to be Christ and his Presence in our world.

Sitting on these hard wooden benches - in this church - wood from cut down a long time ago - sitting under the tree of the cross - the Seeing Tree - we can see a lot - we can have big wake up calls.

A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE FOR TODAY: MAKE A LIST

Make a list of one’s 10 top wake up calls in one’s life so far.

The secret is to list 20, 40, 50 of them - enlightening moments - and then pick one’s top 10 and then rank them in order of impact. This takes work - and prayer - and time - but it’s well worth it.

And share your list with loved ones and hear theirs if possible.

Paul - under his earlier name Saul - had his big wake up call - his awakening moment on the road to Damascus. [3]

Augustine, whose feast was August 28, but we missed it because it was this past Sunday, had his wake up call in a garden in Milan. [4]

CONCLUSION

It’s my experience -  if I do that kind of an exercise - making my list and then listing the 10 top wake up calls or wake up moments, then I’ll start to have more. That’s the way it works. Life can be an eye opening experience. We can wake up every morning - and no longer be a sleep walker.

I know I can preach asleep. I know people sleep during sermons. I know I can be like Rip Van Winkle and be asleep for years and years and years. [5]

As Paul said in today’s first reading, “All of you are children of light and of the day. We belong neither to darkness nor to night; therefore let us not be asleep like the rest, but awake and sober.”

Wake up.

I believe this is one of ten top things Jesus does: he calls people to wake up.

Wake up.



NOTES

[1] I Thessalonians 5: 1-6, 10-16 [Today's First Reading] Check also: Romans 13: 11-14; Ephesians 5: 1-20

[2] Buddhist Scriptures, edited by Edward Conze, Penguin Books, 1959; Lama Surya Das, Awakening The Buddhist Heart, Broadway Books, New, York, 2000, especially Chapter 2, “Awakening to a Deeper Love - A Buddha’s Love” Check The Documents of Vatican II, "Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions," [1965] # 2. Check also The Catechism of the Catholic Faith [1994],  #842 and 843. I was hoping that this particular catechism would give more recognition on the gifts and insights of non-Christian religions to our world. Compare that Churchwide Catechism to  The Dutch Catechism [1967], pages 28 to 30; 271; 284-285. Cf. Zen Catholicism by Dom Aelred Graham, Harcourt, Brace and World, 1963. Looking at the dates of the Vatican II document as well as The Dutch Catechism and Zen Catholicism, I am dating myself. Those were the years when my theological viewpoints were being shaped. Confer also the book by John Allen Jr. Cardinal Ratzinger, The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith,  Continuum, New York, London, [2000], pages 253-255.

[3] Acts of the Apostles 9: 3-19; 22: 1-21

[4] St. Augustine, Confessions, Book 8, Chapter 12.

[5] Washington Irving, The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon - has Irving's version of this often told  folktale about someone who sleeps through significant changes in one's surroundings - some for many years. He published his story in 1819.