Leading up to the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Archbishop William Lori challenged us to meditate on the poor shepherds who watched over their flocks on the night He was born. In doing so, he challenged us to identify one way we can better incorporate watchfulness into our own life.
I believe this is a pertinent challenge for us to consider as we continue through the Christmas season, which is defined by a series of epiphanies. Epiphanies are moments of conversion. Epiphanies are moments to let go of our false sense of reality and to conform ourselves to the objective Truth of God as taught by the Catholic Church. Epiphanies are moments to seek the Truth with all our heart and to serve it once we have found it.
The Visit of the Magi, the Baptism of the Lord, and the Wedding Feast at Cana, as well as our Gospel reading today where Jesus reads from the scroll in Nazareth, are all examples of epiphanies.
Epiphanies occur when people are hungry. The wise men represent a hunger for a king. John the Baptist and his disciples represent a hunger for a savior. The wedding feast attendees represent a hunger for a priest. The congregation at the synagogue in Nazareth represents a hunger for a prophet.
We come to recognize our own hunger through internal watchfulness. We must nurture a sense of internal watchfulness, which is meant to focus on the world within us (where the Holy Spirit speaks to us) as opposed to the world around us. It means being mindful and vigilant to what we are thinking and feeling. It means having a discerning heart.
Do we allow ourselves to be hungry, or do we constantly fill ourselves with the things of this world? What are we looking for and where are we looking for it? What are we actually watching? Do we maintain a practice of daily prayer, regular examination of conscience and frequent confession, or do we sometimes grow spiritually lazy? Do we commit ourselves to steady growth in holiness and virtue as preparation for the final judgment? Do we teach and encourage our loved ones to do the same?
Saint Symeon the Theologian said, “He who does not have attention in himself and does not guard his mind, cannot become pure in heart, and so cannot see God. He who does not have attention in himself cannot be poor in spirit, cannot weep and be contrite, nor be gentle and meek, nor hunger and thirst after righteousness, nor be merciful, nor a peacemaker, nor suffer persecution for righteousness sake.”
The more we can adopt this spirit of watchfulness associated with the Epiphanies during the Christmas season, the better we will understand those things that we must confront and renounce as we enter into the spiritual desert of Lent.
The more deeply we can do this, the more we will experience the victory that conquers the world through our faith.
Thanks be to God!
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