Stay Awake
As we enter the first week of Advent, we hear in Matthew’s Gospel, “Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” This is a familiar verse and one that we might be tempted to gloss over. Yet, Advent is an invitation to a time of expectation, of quiet waiting, and deep spiritual preparation. It is a time to slow down and consider what it means in our lives in 2025, to stay awake. 
Have you ever been so exhausted that you cannot physically stay awake? I am a nervous flyer. I have no problem staying awake on long flights because the adrenaline coursing through my body guarantees that I will not fall asleep. However, my inability to sleep on these flights makes my first day of travel very challenging, excruciating even, and I struggle to stay awake without drinking coffee or espresso. Merely resisting sleep in this exhausted state is not what this passage means by staying awake. Sure, I can keep my eyes open after a long flight, but I am not alert enough to pay attention and perceive what is happening around me. 
Today’s Gospel reading is a call not just to have our eyes ajar, but to be alert, attentive, and expectant. That is what it means to stay awake. In this passage, Jesus invites us to recall the Old Testament story of Noah when people were going about their daily lives. They were “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark.” Though Moses and his family were building an ark with precise measurements in the midst of their community, onlookers were not sufficiently alert or awake to realize that a great flood was coming. Many people found themselves unprepared when the flood arrived.
In a similar way, we too, can live life in a distracted state. Especially in this modern age, our lives are fast and overstimulated. During the holiday season, we zip from parties, to shopping, to school plays and concerts, fueling ourselves on cookies and coffees. Our bodies are in motion but not necessarily alert or awake to the miracle of Advent:  Christ is coming.
The invitation to stay awake beckons us to be conscious of the virtue of hope, of the miracle of life, and the prodigious love that our God has for us in choosing to become incarnate. Let us stay awake this season to be attentive to the details surrounding Jesus’ birth and to prepare ourselves for His ultimate return in glory. 
By Elizabeth Tomlin