The Gospel for the final day of the liturgical year come from Luke 21:34–36. Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness”
Jesus reminds us to be vigilant. Pay attention, take heed, watch out, and attend carefully to myself.
It’s easy to spend time “taking heed” of other people and pointing out how “they’re” failing — whoever “they” may be. Meanwhile, I struggle to recognize that my heart isn’t in the right place and I’m the one who needs correction.
The spiritual works of mercy are not an excuse for attending to someone else’s business. “I’m just instructing the ignorant, and admonishing sinners.” Is that what I’m doing, or am I criticizing others so I can feel superior?
Instead of focusing outward onto others, the Lord tells his disciples to focus inward. Turn your gaze onto yourself. Reflect on your own thoughts, motivations, and actions. Attend to your own affairs.
This is good advice generally, but this final word of Ordinary Time is intended to prepare us to be able “to stand before the Son of Man.”
This reading comes is a gift as we’re about to begin Advent. We’re at the end, and something new is about to arrive, and Advent leads to the Feast of the Nativity. The arrival of Christ, the king, the incarnate deity.
The period between “Black Friday” and December 25 might be the equivalent to a “secular Advent.” We spend a month accumulating electronics, the latest fashions, furniture, and luxury automobiles (at least according to all the commercials).
Without careful attention, the secular celebration transforms us from human beings into consumers.
Traditionally, though, Advent is designed to mirror Lent — a period of repentance in preparation for the arrival of Christ. Like Lent, in Advent we are expected to fast, pray, and give alms.
These are acts of askesis — spiritual training. Greek Orthodox scholar Aristotle Papanikolaou likens spiritual training to dance. None of the training is done as religious performance. These are not simply “rules one must follow or a bunch of propositions to which one must assent.” That have a purpose.
“It is first and foremost an art form, an expression of beauty that is also truth and goodness. The rules and propositions of the tradition — and every tradition has its rules and propositions — aim at the production of the person as a work of art.”
Fasting, praying, and almsgiving are intended to teach us how to escape profligacy and learn how “to stand before the Son of Man.” Professor Papanikolaou affirms that spiritual training “contributes to the learning of love.”
1. Fasting
By fasting, I mean the foregoing of food. People often fast from other things, and that’s good. However, fasting from food is how we learn to simplify and break free from all the things vying for our attention.
Most of us aren’t desert monastics, but the early Christian desert fathers and mothers taught fasting as the primary way to control ourselves. If we can’t control our stomachs, we can’t control much of anything else. Through fasting, we learn how to control our thoughts. John Cassian (in his Institutes of the Coenobia) connects fasting from physical food to fasting from what he calls “forbidden foods of the soul.”
The Catholic Church suggests fasting guidelines, and the Orthodox continue to keep the 40 day Nativity fast. Fasting should be done carefully and with the guidance of a spiritual director or at least a companion who can accompany you through the fast.
Fasting is not about starving yourself. It’s not about going from zero to 60 and pushing yourself to the brink. And spiritual writers agree that there’s no guilt in breaking the fast.
Yes, fasting is hard and there are countless reasons keeping us from fasting. But two thousand years of Christian practice (not to mention other traditions) demonstrate that fasting is a key way in learning to be watchful over our thoughts and actions.
2. Prayer
Advent is a time for prayer combined with fasting. The Jesus Prayer is maybe the best-known prayer to use. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
When pangs of hunger hit, and they will, say the Jesus Prayer. It helps unite your hunger with the Bread of Life. In a holy paradox, this prayer causes us to take heed to ourselves by focusing our attention away from ourselves and onto Christ.
It’s also important to aside time in Advent to daily prayer. No need to start out at a marathon level. Begin with 5–10 minutes. Say the Our Father or a decade of the rosary and then sit quietly in expectation, listening in expectation. The main thing is to select one prayer, stick to your schedule “religiously,” and include time for quiet listening.
3. Almsgiving
Fasting and prayer unite with almsgiving. Calculate the money you’d save from eating and give it to those who are poor. Or donate meals to a youth homeless shelter. Or take the time I would use at meals and donate it to serving others. This may not amount to a fortune, but it will add up. I will also soon discover myself limiting my own consumption.
In another paradox, almsgiving sets my attention of Christ. When I look for people who require my service, those people become Christ to me. They are the incarnation because Jesus said he identifies with all who are in any need (Matthew 25). Almsgiving makes increases my vigilance so that I become “greedy” not to consume but to give and serve.
None of this training is to be performed publicly. Jesus taught, us to keep our fast hidden, pray in secret, and give without letting the left hand know what the right is doing (Matthew 6).
Don’t broadcast it to the world because that misses the point. If I tell people, I risk becoming a consumer again — consuming the praise of other people. “Wow! Look how holy he is.”
The point of all this is learning vigilance. This is how I keep watch over my heart and not getting caught up in consumerism. Fasting, prayer, and almsgiving are the mechanisms of watchfulness that transform you away being a consumer into. They will help you rediscover your humanity.
Will I always be “successful?” No, but that’s not the goal. Success is not the measurement in the Kingdom of God. Advent is about learning watchfulness, finding the ways to grow in vigilance, and discovering the ongoing practice of living with intention. These skills train us, as the liturgical reading in Luke says, to stand confidently before the Son of Man.
Reflection
- What one thing can I do to reduce my overall consumption during Advent?
2. When, where, and how much time will I dedicate to praying during Advent?
3. What is keeping me from fasting?
(Image: Entry to old cemetery in Mahabaleshwar, India. Source: Wikimedia Commons.)
