“Therefore, stay awake,
for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Eschatology is the study of the “last things.” Traditionally, Catholic eschatology has dealt with the four last things related to the human person: death, judgement, heaven and hell. Early eschatology, as early as St. Paul himself, was focused on Jesus’s return in glory, called his “second coming” or the parousia in Greek. This eschaton, or last thing, was thought to be the imminent return of Jesus, which was the final consumption of history ushering in a new heaven and new earth. It was the end point of this created reality, in a sense, and the entrance into an eternal reality where God is all in all. And that, my friends, is how you summarize a semester long graduate level theology course in a paragraph! Whew!
Jesus’s parable in today’s gospel would have originally been interpreted as ensuring that we are ready for his second coming, which could happen at any moment, literally. After a few generations, when his parousia seemed to be delayed, it took the tone of being prepared for our personal last things: our own death, judgement, and eternal existence in heaven or hell. It shifted from staying awake because you know not the day or the hour of the Lord’s second coming to not knowing the day or the hour the Lord is coming for you. Since we could die at any moment (some monastic traditions, especially, consider this keeping death always before our eyes), we best be ready. It seemed more likely that we would die before we would see Christ coming on the clouds in glory. Again, we best be ready!
There is yet another way to understand this, however. It has more to do with what it means to “stay awake” than on either Christ’s second coming or our own personal death. Staying awake, in this instance, is about our personal awareness of the presence, movement, and action of God. We must be awake, ready, or aware to catch the activity of God in our world, relationships, or deep within our own souls. Are we paying attention to what Jesus is doing right now?
More often than not, we are more reliving things that have happened or anticipating things that will happen than being truly aware of what is happening. In a few short weeks, we will be entering the season of Advent (I know! Can you believe it?). This is a season of preparation for Christ’s coming: his coming in the past which we celebrate as Christmas and his second coming in glory in the future. Yet, it also has a strong emphasis on the present. Think, “today is the day and now the proper hour...,” or, “now is the acceptable time...”
Jesus comes to us in the now, or, more accurately, the here and now. God is with his people. We do look forward with hope to the fulfillment of all of God’s promises. We long to hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We should stay awake for we do not know the day or the hour of the Lord’s return or of our own death. But we should also stay awake for at any moment God may arrive in our own lives, here and now. Are you ready?