Staying Awake

 

Teacher, do you not care?

Perhaps like me in this past year, you have found something new to keep you amused.  One think I have become addicted to is the video streaming services.  By these I mean Netflix and Disney Plus.  I signed up for a number of them and have been enjoying watching various television series and movies. I think what I like most about them is that if I fall asleep while watching them, I can very easily rewind the movie or show and either start over again or pick up easily from where I left off.  You see I am one of those people that fall asleep minutes into a movie.  The movie or show has to be particularly compelling for me to stay awake and even then chances are if I recline my feet or get comfortable in a chair, my eyelids will get heavy and I will be out.  Now my family gets particularly frustrated with me.  We will sometimes be watching a real exciting movie and just at the most exciting moment when the murderer is about to be revealed or the heroine is about to be saved or some other climactic moment, my kids or my wife will look over and I will be in la la land.  And they will say to me, “How can you have fallen asleep?  Didn’t you want to see what happened?”  You see, they don’t want me to fall asleep.  They desire that I share the experience with them and so they shout out to me, “Wake up.”  And they are left feeling that even though I was with them in the room, I wasn’t really there at all.

And so the disciples, as the storm rages around them, they look to see Jesus in the stern of the ship, asleep on a cushion.  They must have said, ‘Are you kidding me?’  In the midst of the storm, this same person whom we have already seem perform some miracles, he is asleep, not even caring.  So they awaken him, “Teacher, do you not care?”

And now we find ourselves in a storm.  As we, at least in this part of the world, seem to be emerging from the pandemic, at least the worst of it, we would hope we would find ourselves in tranquil waters, and yet we seem to be right smack in the storm of our making.  We see division in the political arena that has poured out into many aspects of society.  We even see division in the Church itself.  And yet we look to Christ and perhaps we think he is asleep.  And perhaps we utter these words, “Teacher, do you not care?”

But first lets ask ourselves: why does Jesus appear to be asleep?  Perhaps, if we are really honest, it is because we placed him on that cushion.  We have put him in the corner of the boat, if you will.  We have accepted that his is necessary, and yet, we prefer perhaps that he does not have a voice in our lives.  We are okay to raise him from his slumber when we need him for a special event, like a wedding or a Baptism or a funeral, and yet in the everyday, we silence him.  So it appears that he has fallen asleep or perhaps more the matter, we have put him asleep.  We have made speaking about him in public almost like breaking the law.  We have turned his commandments into mere suggestions.  We have even turned away from what he has given us in the Natural Law.  We have turned freedom to love into the supremacy of personal freedom to do whatever I want, even at the cost of another human life.  We have misunderstood his command to Love God and Love Neighbor into a simple program that says I will do those two things, love God and love neighbor, if I have time, but I have to take care of my own needs first.  We have even turned his invitation to partake of his very body – his very soul and divinity – into something we can take a pass on.   We have left his offer of mercy and forgiveness in the often emptiness of the confessional.  We have allowed vocations to the priesthood and the religious life seem like unattractive and uninspiring ways to live.  We have made worshiping God and even sadly believing in God as something reserved for older members of our society.  Our young people say they believe in God but not institutional religion, and yet further surveys indicate many really don’t have a spiritually at all.  My friends, perhaps we have put God asleep. 

Our boats are being rocked in the waters of our times.  We look around and see that God, whom we were almost embarrassed  to talk about, is exactly where we put him, in a pillow in a corner of the boat.  God came to us.  He performed miracles in each of our lives.  He has given us so many blessings, and yet we have put him asleep in the corner of the boat.

But here now is the Good News.  There always is, despite how challenging the message, always Good News.  Despite being put asleep, Jesus is never not in our midst.  All it really takes is us to ask that he awakens.  Did you notice that is wasn’t the storm that awoke Jesus?  It was the pleading of the disciples for help that brought him out of his slumber.  My friends, despite that I am sure the Lord is disappointed in the state of the world at this time, the storm doesn’t change him.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  He can and will make a difference.  It is not because he turns on some kind of super power and makes everything all right, it is because he is the calm in the raging storm.  For he brings us peace and he is, in his very being, love itself.

And so, what now?  Here we are in this storm, no doubt.  And yes, perhaps we can ride out the storm ourselves.  Perhaps we will survive on our own, but when this storm passes, others will eventually come.  They always do.  There is no insurance that guarantees a storm will not come.  Will we once again find ourselves having to then turn to God as a last resort or will be aware that indeed he is always awake in our midst?  For indeed he really is always awake.  It is most likely us who are actually asleep, asleep to his very presence.

When we are awake to his presence, when we realize that he is in our boats, always by our side, always ready to be that calming force, that may not guarantee us that no storms will come, but it will help us get through the storms, then perhaps things will be different.  Perhaps we will come out of the next storm, not ready to blame our brothers and sisters, not ready to take sides, not ready to think it was our own abilities, but that we were rescued by the savior and we need him in the future.

And so, in this new normal, if you will, and indeed we have all been changed, for the good and for the worse, how different will we be in terms of the Lord?  Will we continue to just let him sleep in the corner?  Or will we remember that he wants to be part of every moment of our lives.  He wants to be awake, if you will, in those moments of success, even in the smallest of things.  When things go right.  when our children get a good grade in school,  when we get a compliment from our boss at work, when we find that parking space in a crowded parking lot, in all of it, let us give him the glory and the praise.  Let us give him praise when our boats sail to the other side in calm and peaceful waters, let us recognize that he is there, providing that calm. 

And in those moments when we have to make a tough decision, when we have to decide what the right thing to do is, let us turn to him, for he wants to be awake there, to provide us counsel.  How great it will be in this new normal if we turn to him before we make a decision, instead of only coming to him when we think we messed things up on our own.

You see my friends, our boats, our very lives are not really about us.  They are his.  We are part of his story, this beautiful journey with him from one shore to the other, often in calm waters, sometimes having to face storms, but always with him by our side.  In this new normal then, let us pray that it will be evident that indeed he is awake and that he does care.

- The Servant