Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come

30 AUGUST (Mt 24,42-51)

Our vigil, waiting for the Lord, must not be of fear, dread, terror, for the judgment hanging over us. Instead, it should be a wake of love, joy, contentment, and waiting of the loved toward the Beloved, of the bride for her Bridegroom. Conceived in these terms, the wake is covered of a new truth, of a different light.

I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride; I gather my myrrh and my spices, I eat my honey and my sweetmeats, I drink my wine and my milk. Eat, friends; drink! Drink freely of love! I was sleeping, but my heart kept vigil; I heard my lover knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is wet with dew, my locks with the moisture of the night.” I have taken off my robe, am I then to put it on? I have bathed my feet, am I then to soil them? My lover put his hand through the opening; my heart trembled within me, and I grew faint when he spoke. I rose to open to my lover, with my hands dripping myrrh: With my fingers dripping choice myrrh upon the fittings of the lock. I opened to my lover – but my lover had departed, gone. I sought him but I did not find him; I called to him but he did not answer me. The watchmen came upon me as they made their rounds of the city; They struck me, and wounded me, and took my mantle from me, the guardians of the walls. I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my lover – What shall you tell him?- that I am faint with love. How does your lover differ from any other, O most beautiful among women? How does your lover differ from any other, that you adjure us so? My lover is radiant and ruddy; he stands out among thousands. His head is pure gold; his locks are palm fronds, black as the raven. His eyes are like doves beside running waters, His teeth would seem bathed in milk, and are set like jewels. His cheeks are like beds of spice with ripening aromatic herbs. His lips are red blossoms; they drip choice myrrh. His arms are rods of gold adorned with chrysolites. His body is a work of ivory covered with sapphires. His legs are columns of marble resting on golden bases. His stature is like the trees on Lebanon, imposing as the cedars. His mouth is sweetness itself; he is all delight. Such is my lover, and such my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. (Song of Songs 5,1-6).

The Christian soul is the bride. Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom. The bride must wait in joy and exultation for the arrival of her Bridegroom in order to celebrate the eternal wedding with him. Never might our waking be the wake of who worries for God’s judgment, or worse, of who is afraid of it. This wake would lack its truth. Without truth there is no waking. Without truth, there is no real hope. If hope is nonexistent, the vigil is also nonexistent.

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

If we do not want to wake for very great love, Jesus asks us to at least watch for the salvation of our souls. We cannot end up into eternal damnation. Never will any one come out of hell. The pain is so indescribable and long that in comparison all the sufferings of time are a nothingness, a real nullity. Enjoying in sin even for a whole lifetime is not worth even if hell were for a single moment. A single moment of hell for a whole lifetime of sin would already be great folly and ignorance. Imagine a moment of sin for an eternal life of suffering! This choice is real foolishness and ignorance. If we do not want to wake for the great love of Jesus Christ, let us at least wake for the love of our very lives. It is an impure, and imperfect love; nevertheless, it saves us, redeems us, and helps us achieve eternal bliss in the Paradise of God. Avoiding hell must be the objective and purpose of our life.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels, and Saints, make us wise and intelligent.