St Mary's

A couple of hunters chartered a plane to fly them into forest territory. Two weeks later the pilot came to take them back. He took a look at the animals they had shot and said, “This plane won’t take more than one wild buffalo. You’ll have to leave the other behind.”

“But last year the pilot let us take two in a plane this size,” the humans protested.

The pilot was doubtful, but finally he said, “Well, if you did it last year I guess we can do it again.”

So the plane took off with the three men and two buffaloes. But it couldn’t gain height and crashed into a neighbouring hill. All the men climbed out and looked around. One hunter said to the other, “Where do you think we are?” The other inspected the surroundings and said, “I think we’re about two kilometers to the left of where we crashed last year.”

I think we can all see a little bit of ourselves in this story.

That lack of Awareness that allows us to keep making the same mistakes, often, over and over.

WE are seemingly powerless to change. The Advent message is primarily one of inviting us to WAKE UP and change.

In the words of today’s Gospel,

“So stay awake, because you do not know the day your God is coming.”

This and other similar texts have often been read in a very narrow and moralistic way, interpreted as a warning of coming doom for all those who are not living free from sin or who do not believe in a particular set of beliefs. In other words, “You better watch out, or else!” you’ll find yourself in some stuffy afterlife courtroom before a severe judge whose job it is to cast a guilty verdict on those who are found unprepared.

This understanding fails to grasp the central message of Jesus to stay awake so that we don’t miss out on the joy of resting in the presence of God, life in all its fullness, not in some distant future, but available right now. We need only to live with our eyes open to this gift, which manifests itself in the little unexpected gifts of daily life; the smile on the face of a child, an embrace from a co-worker, a kiss from a spouse, a letter from a friend.

This is the thief that comes unexpectedly in the night – to surprise us with the gift of fullness and joy, Are we ready; are we awake and watching?

There is an interesting 6 part series on the ABC at the moment called, “Making Australia Happy” where a panel of 3 experts in Happiness Psychology invite 10 people from varying backgrounds, but all living in the same suburb, who have all identified that they could be happier in their lives. They are invited to a series of tests to determine their level of happiness. They undergo both physical and psychological testing and all have been found to be below the average level of happiness. (You can do this test yourself if you log onto www.abc.net.au/makingaustraliahappy )

They all agreed to undergo a series of exercises designed to increase their level of happiness.

Most of them registered as living very sedentary lives with little or no exercise which affected their metabolism and sleeping patterns. All were encouraged to find a little more exercise in their lives. Some were encouraged to make adjustments to their work commitments to make more time for family, friends and fun.

One was asked to seek financial assistance to help with better budgeting and the spending of his money.

All were encouraged to live their lives much more mindfully.

They used a simple exercise of eating and appreciating a sultana – to look at it, to smell it, to feel it, hear it, and eventually to savour it, really entering into the experience of appreciating the sultana.

So many of the simple and beautiful things of our lives get missed because we are never present to them; we don’t spend the time to stop and enjoy them. Too busy thinking about the past, or planning the future, the next thing, so we miss out on really living our lives.

Another exercise they used to emphasize this was they arranged to meet in a downtown coffee shop where a busker, who was an internationally famous flute player, was playing outside. All but one stopped to listen and appreciate; most walked past her without realizing she was there.

How much of our loves to we walk past, too busy trying too fit too much in? Over the next few weeks of this fascinating program, I look forward to watching these people wake up. And hopefully they will inspire others to awaken.

Thomas Merton, the famous Trappist monk, said of the Spiritual life, “We are like pilots of fog-bound steamers, peering into the gloom in front of us, listening for the sounds of other ships, and we can only reach our harbour if we keep alert.

The spiritual life is, then, first of all a matter of keeping awake ….always able to respond to the slightest warnings that speak, as though by a hidden instinct, in the depth of the soul that is spiritually alive.

I would like to finish with a story that invites us to think more deeply about our invitation to awaken.

And the disciple queried, “Master, is there anything I can do to make myself enlightened?”

The Master responded wisely, “Do as little as you can to make the sun rise in the morning”. The restless disciple continued, “But Master, of what use then are the spiritual exercise you prescribe?”

The Master answered,”To make sure you are not asleep when the sun rises.”