December 2000

Stay awake, praying at all times (Luke 21:36)

We find this invitation to pray in the context of the announcement in Luke of Jesus' second coming. Jesus will come when we least expect it, to the created universe, but also to each one of us, when we die and meet the Lord face to face.

"Stay awake and pray" Jesus says again in the Garden of Olives, to prepare his disciples for the scandal of the passion.

We could say then that these two words contain the secret for facing the most dramatic events of life, as well as for facing the inevitable difficulties of every day.

Watchfulness and prayer are essential to each other: you cannot watch without praying, nor can you pray without being spiritually awake. Right from the times of the first ascetics in the desert, people have tried every means to marry these two virtues, so that no temptation would catch them by surprise. And many means were invented to stay in an attitude that was always vigilant and prayerful.

But for us today, in the frenetic and all-consuming pace of modern life, what hope can there be of not letting ourselves be lulled to sleep by so many siren songs? Yet those words of the Gospel are made for us too...

Stay awake, praying at all times.

As in past ages, Jesus cannot ask us to do something we are incapable of doing. And while giving us this exhortation he cannot leave us without a way of living according to his word.

How can we stay awake and on our guard? How can we stay in an attitude of constant prayer? Perhaps we have tried to make every possible effort to put up our defences against everyone and everything. But this isn't the way and it is not long before we realise that sooner or later we just have to give up.

The way is a different one and we find it both in the Gospel and in our own human experience. When you love someone, your heart is always watchful, waiting, and every minute that goes by without that person is lived for him or her. The truly watchful are those who love. Vigilance is love's nature. We are taught this also by the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Those who are waiting for someone they love are watchful. It is not an effort to stay awake, because the feeling that keeps them up and ready for the moment of meeting is stronger.

This is what happens in a family when they are apart: they live for the moment when they will see each other again; and the gladness of their greeting contains all the joyful labour of the day.

This is what a mother or father does when taking a short break while caring for a sick child. They may sleep, but their heart keeps watch.

People who love Jesus act like this too. They do everything for him whom they meet in the simple manifestations of his will in every moment and whom they will meet solemnly on the day he comes. The liturgy too prepares us this month for a living prayer, full of expectation, of gifts, of the Gift: the birth of Jesus on this earth, in this celebration at the dawn of the third millennium.

Stay awake, praying at all times.

Continuous prayer too is all a question of love, because, apart from the times specifically dedicated to it, the whole of our daily life can become prayer, offering, silent conversation with God.

The smile to be given, the job to, do, the car to drive, that meal to cook, that activity to arrange, those tears to shed for our suffering brother or sister, that instrument to play, that article or letter to write, that happy event to rejoice in together, those clothes to clean... If we do it with love, everything, everything can become prayer.

In order to be watchful and to pray always, what matters, therefore, is to remain in love. That means to love God's will and to love every neighbour God puts beside us.

Today I will love. In this way I will be watchful and will pray every moment.

Chiara Lubich