Watch -- First Sunday of Advent

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming,
whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” -- Mark 13:33-37

Watch.

We do a lot of watching in our lives. We watch our children grow. We watch what we are cooking so as not to burn it. We watch for a loved one to return home safely from a trip. We watch television and movies. We watch the seasons change. We watch our gardens grow. We watch the sunset or sunrise.

As a mother of three, I do a lot of watching of my children -- laughter, tears, fights, tantrums, frowns, smiles, dancing, singing, tea parties, Lego building, story telling, modeling shows. I watch the years pass by and my girls get taller and more mature looking. I watch them learning to read, dress themselves, make their own toast, and play outside in our yard unsupervised. I watch all of these things, but one of the things I love to watch time and again is their growing love for God and their faith. It is so sweet and innocent and every time I hear one of them tell me proudly something they've learned in PSR or make a statement like, "You know Momma, I love you and daddy and my sisters and <insert several other family members>, but I love God most of all!" my heart just melts into a puddle.

Faith is so important in this life, but of course, it is our eternal and immortal souls that are the biggest focus of faith. In this passage from the Gospel of St. Mark, Jesus is telling His disciples to watch for Him and be ready when He comes on the last day. Like the disciples, none of us knows the day or the hour when Christ will come again, so we are well advised to make ourselves ready every day.

Obviously in this season of Advent, we are not making ready for the second coming of Christ, but making ready is at the center of what this special season is all about. We make ready our homes by doing things like cleaning and beginning to decorate. More importantly, we make ready our hearts by examining our consciences to discern where we've sinned, confessing that sin to Him and asking His forgiveness and by acts of worship and service.

By doing these preparations of the heart, we prepare a precious gift of ourselves for the newborn babe in the manager. By doing these things, we are joining with the Israelites of old as they waited and watched for the Messiah. By doing these things, we are reminded of the reason for His first coming -- "to save us all from Satan's power, while we were gone astray." By doing these things, we not only prepare our hearts for Christmas but for that second coming and as the Eucharistic prayer says, we "await the blessed hope and coming of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ."

How do you prepare your heart for Christmas?