Jesus warns his disciples in today’s Gospel not to let themselves be consumed by “carousing or drunkeness” or by “the anxieties of daily life.” It is the latter that seems to me to be the greater danger for most of us (although I admit that in my younger days there were periods when I spent far too many hours in an Irish bar carousing and drinking).
We worry about so many things. Our jobs if we are working. Our grades if we are in school. Our children. Our health. Our houses. (We woke up this morning yet again to the beeps that indicate some problem with the sump pump.) Things we want.
Most of the things we worry about have some importance. So the fact that we care about them is not a problem. But we can get so overwhelmed with anxiety, our minds so completely clouded in worry, that we lose sight of anything else. That we lose sight of God.
Although Jesus’ primary message in today’s Gospel (in our last day before the beginning of Advent) is vigilence, today’s Gospel is also a reminder to remember that we are not alone in any of the anxieties that we face and a reminder to periodically simply place those worries and anxieties in God’s hands. That doesn’t mean sitting back and expecting God to fix my sump pump without my calling the plumber, but it does mean not letting that and other things disturb my peace and knowledge of God’s presence.
Creo en Dios! 