“The Penny Drops.” That’s a phrase a woman in Maine on a parish retreat recently used to sum up today’s gospel. I had never heard the phrase and didn’t have a clue to its origins. Apparently it goes back to the “old days” when coins were used in mechanisms like public scales. They would cost a penny to use and sometimes a coin would jam. So, after dropping a coin a person would wait for a moment until the “penny dropped” and the scale delivered a person’s weight.
So, the term refers to a belated realization of something after a period of confusion and waiting. There is a line in a novel by Nigel Balchin where the protagonist says, “I sat and thought for a moment and then the penny dropped.” Let’s back into the Advent season and today’s gospel to see how the “penny drops.”
With this new liturgical year we begin our Sunday readings from Mark’s gospel. This may be the beginning of the liturgical year, but where’s the beginning of Mark? Today’s reading doesn’t start our year with chapter1,verse 1, instead our passage is close to the end of the gospel.
The context of today’s gospel passage: Jesus has entered Jerusalem (11:1) where he brings his public ministry to a close. He closes the cultic life of the Temple (11:15ff) and enters into debate with the traditional teachers of the faith (12:12ff ). Then, from the Mount of Olives, he predicts Jerusalem’s destruction and the end of the world (13:1ff).
Today’s gospel selection ends Jesus’ teaching to his disciples. Under obedience and the gift of himself on the cross, Jesus is about to leave his disciples. In the parable he associates his departure with the “man traveling aboard.” The master may be leaving, but his return is quite certain; though those given charge of his household do not know when. What is for sure is that when the master returns he expects to find his house in good order and his servants alert. They are charged to be constantly awake.
Advent has begun and we need this reminder that Jesus will return, for who among us has not dozed in our service of the Lord? This parable shakes us awake to full disciple-readiness. The penny will drop and we need to wake up to that certainty in our lives.
Mark sounds like he is speaking about some future event. But he is not so much concerned about the future, as he is to instill and reinforce in his community a Christian attitude towards the present. Mark tells a parable which Jesus told to help his hearers prepare for his return; but also so that they would respond to his message then and there.
If the parable just wanted to warn Christians to be watchful, then the emphasis would have been on the doorkeeper who would admit the master on his return. What’s the purpose of the other servants and their assignments? Are they merely extras in the background of the story? Mark seems to be thinking of his wider community — all of the “servants” in the church have their own tasks and must also be encouraged to be vigilant. Hence, the closing line of the parable, “What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch.'” With Jesus’ closing words all future believers are told to be vigilant.
Mark’s gospel has been leading up to the Passion Narrative. After Caesarea Philippi we have been journeying with Jesus towards Jerusalem where he will fulfill God’s saving plan for us. With today’s parable Mark concludes the apocalyptic discourse addressed to his community. The evangelist is now ready to narrate the events leading up to the Passion. Thus, the closing advice of today’s passage has significance for us. “Watch,” we are told. Of course its an emphasis on vigilance and preparation for the master’s return.
But perhaps Mark is also underlining the significance of what is about to happen. “Watch,” he tells us. The great events about to unfold have profound significance for each of us. Today may be the beginning of Advent, but Jesus’ Passion is linked to this season in which we keep vigil, mindful of what the coming Christ asks of all his disciples: watchfulness and faithful, sacrificial service in his name.
Many recent converts in parishes are willing to share the excitement of their conversion. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) has been a process that not only brought them into the church, but ignited their lives with the light and heat of faith. Listening to their stories one hopes their faith stays as exciting and animating as it presently is. But they and we can easily drift into routine and predictability in prayer and the practice of our faith.
Advent begins with a wake-up call, inviting and challenging us to ask, “How watchful have I been for the Lord in my daily life?” We know we are waiting for the Lord’s future coming, but in the meanwhile, how alert have I been to his presence here and now in my life? Our faith in Jesus’ presence already among us draws us around the altar today to listen to his Word and to receive his Body and Blood which will help us stay vigilant and wake us if we have been dozing. Once again, we are reminded, “The penny will drop.”
Another person on that retreat recounted what her 85-year-old mother told her recently, “My life has gone by so quickly!” The woman reflected on what her mother told her and said, “I will say the same thing someday, so I need to do now what I must, while I still have time.” That is an Advent resolution if ever I’ve have heard one.
In light of today’s parable the woman was describing “active waiting.” It’s like cleaning house as I prepare for guests to come. That’s very different from “passive waiting” which just lets time pass without focus and the watchfulness the parable asks of us. Jesus calls us to have a sense of responsibility as we live in the “already- and-not-yet time.” The Jewish people waited with expectation for the coming of the Messiah. We believe he has come, but now we are actively waiting, sustained by our faith and hope that Jesus, who has come, will come again.
Notice how Jesus repeats the command “Watch.” If we are trying to be ready all the time we will meet Christ when he arrives each day. That is because the present moment is charged with possibility. Time in the Bible can be described the way we usually refer to it. We look at our watch and say, “It’s 11 AM.” That’s “chronos” time, it marks the minutes, hours, days etc. But in the Scripture there is also “kairos” time–a special time charged with possibility; a moment when the unexpected happens and breaks in on our routine, offering a gifted opportunity. The parable is speaking about “kairos” time and should cause us to reflect: am I just marking time, keeping busy waiting for some future far off event. or do I sense that the present is charged with possibility and so I keep my eyes open to respond to it when it comes?
During this in-between time am I finding ways to stay alert and conscious so that I can detect Jesus’ presence when he enters my life — at some kairos moment? Those people on that retreat in Maine found the retreat to be one way to sensitize themselves to Christ’s presence in their lives. Other people devote some time for reflective reading, meditation, lectures at church, an Advent penance service, finding housing and clothing for the homeless, tutoring inner-city kids and other moments filled with the possibility of kairos time. Somehow these people are awake and ready for when “the penny drops.”
ADVENT-URE
“Advent”- what does it mean, to us, to the Church? It seems to mean the arrival of someone or something: the arrival, the “adventure” of Christ’s Incarnation. For us today, it should mean much more. We need Him to come and convince us that He is still among us. Hence, we have to be ready to welcome Him.
The Gospel narratives that precede the birth of Christ have always inspired a host of
stories and plays with real characters we know so much about: Mary, Elizabeth, John Baptist, David, Prophets, Angels, Joseph, Shepherds, and so many others.
The color of Advent is violet, purple. The music is subdued as if to prepare the contrast for the joyful days of Christmas. It is a liturgical unfolding of “Hope, the Road, Light,
Repentance, Reconciliation and Public Repentance.“
Mahatma Gandhi, the great liberator of India never seemed to care about his tendency to change his mind. One of his close associates once asked him how he could freely and publicly seemed to contradict this week something he had said last week. Gandhi replied, “Because this week I know better.”
These weeks of Advent and Christmas we will all certainly come to know better. This is a season of quiet patience and simplicity. It shouldn’t be only a festive, present-giving-and-receiving, overindulging extravaganza. We could even ask legitimately why
Schools and parishes organize brunches and parties the Sunday before Christmas,
instead of the Sundays after Christmas. Why can’t we let Advent be Advent?
Advent is about pondering what is yet to come. Christmas will make no sense unless we ponder and realize how much we and the world needs the Christmas message – a newborn Christ and a reign of Peace. Tragically, our religious feast has become a civic holiday, even in non-Christian countries and/or rabidly anti-Christian cultures. Jesus has been replaced by Santa and the Crib has given way to the Tree. There are schools and places in which, in the extreme spirit of non-discrimination fever, they dropped the name Christmas and celebrate instead “Winter-fest”!
From the so-called “Ordinary Time” in the liturgy we now move to the “End of Time”.
The weeks ahead can be either “secularized” or “sacred” – shopping or sharing;
a season for partying or for piety.
Waiting is one of the most frequently experienced human situations: we wait for the birth of a child, to grow up, to be married. We wait for relationships and illnesses to heal and bad governments to change; we wait for a job, for a stroke of good luck, for “things to get better”. Waiting for God is a most demanding endeavor. Our faith and
hope are tested by the apparent endless wait. Yet, we fail to recognize the fact that
God is already arrived, but we have to go and meet Him half way.
Nowadays, in a culture ruled by speed and immediate responses, waiting has become “worrying”, anxiety. On the other hand, however, it has become fashionable to plan ahead. Waiting is equated with wasting! We fly supersonic planes, send fax and e-mail messages and eat at fast food restaurants.
Advent is also a time to repent – and return to our childhood – innocence. Our past must be resolved before we can live gracefully in the present and look hopefully to the future.
Do you remember the story of Pinocchio? Whenever he told a lie, his nose got longer. But one novelist wrote an even better story. It’s about a man who, every time he tells a lie, he shrivelled. He became smaller and smaller every time he did something that was against his conscience, every time he yielded to temptation, he shrank a little.
CHURCH THAT STAYS AWAKE
The early generations of Christians lived obsessed with the immediate arrival of Jesus. The risen Christ could not delay much longer. They had lived so dependent on Him that they couldn’t keep waiting. They wanted Him to come soon.
Soon they realized that this delay was too dangerous. They might lose their original enthusiasm. With the passage of time, those small communities could drift into indifference and forgetfulness. One concrete fear was: “If He comes unexpectedly, Christ would find them asleep!”
Vigilance became the buzz word. The evangelists keep repeating it constantly: “watch out”, “stay awake”, “wait on”. According to Mark, Jesus’ appeal is addressed not only to those who were listening to him: “And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” It wasn’t just one more call. The warning was meant for all his followers down the centuries.
Twenty centuries of Christianity have already gone by. What has happened to Jesus’ warning? How are we, today’s Christians, affected by those words? Are we really awake? Is our faith alive or are we drifting into indifference and mediocrity?
Don’t we see that our Church needs a new heart? Don’t we feel the need to get rid of our apathy and self-deceit? Can’t we wake up to the call of those simple believers, within the Church, who show us their humility and transparent faith?
We can still recognize the living face of Jesus, who calls, attracts, invites and leads the way. How can we continue to speak, debate and write so much about Jesus, and not be transformed by His person? Don’t we realize that a Church that is not touched by Christ’s heart is asleep and has no future? Such Church will grow old for lack of enthusiasm.
Can’t we feel the need to wake up and intensify our relationship with Him? No one but Jesus can stir up our Christianity from the immobility, inertia, the drag of the past, and our lack of creativity. Who will pass on to us their joy, their creative energy and vitality?
SURPRISE, SURPRISE!
Do we like surprises? It depends on what kind of surprises we are talking about.
On the one hand, we avoid the unexpected, but, at the same time, we tend to get bored when every day and everything is like every other day – monotony. We don’t function well on a diet of sameness, but we do our best to protect ourselves from the unexpected and the uncontrollable. We organize, prepare, and plan in order to remove the elements of surprise from our lives.
Believe it or not, it used to be socially acceptable for people just to “drop by” someone else’s house for a visit. Unexpected guests were a welcome surprise. Today it is often considered the height of inconsiderateness to show up at someone’s house unannounced. Houses don’t have porches anymore, and you can go for blocks without seeing an open front door. Today houses are closed compartments. We blame the central air and heating systems. But the real reason is that we want security and no surprises.
The Coming of the Lord – no surprise yet! Mark’s gospel, however, does not start the season of Advent with the story of Christ’s birth. He starts dealing with the end of time! Surprise? Think about it, however. Advent really has to do with the coming of the Lord. Jesus’ birth was just one of the comings of the Lord. The faith of the New Testament sees the end times as centering on the coming of the Lord. God is always “the One who comes” – to strengthen, to reveal, to judge, to redeem. Therefore, the posture of the people of God in every age must be one of waiting and expectation.
The section of Mark is full of apocalyptic, dramatic language of a cosmic crisis. But, to give a familiar example, would you ever think of interpreting the following words literally? “Mine eyes have seen the coming of the Lord. He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on.” To understand them literally would diminish their power and glory. The point is that the coming of the Lord is always momentous and always involves an element of surprise. So Jesus says, “Keep awake!” The Lord also knows how much you need a good night’s sleep. It is just a spiritual admonition.
At the time Mark wrote this gospel, Jerusalem and its beautiful temple lay in ruins. Christians were suffering persecution. Any number of false Messiahs were announcing the end of time. The New Testament makes it abundantly clear that the end of history will be by God’s determination and according to God’s time-table. Human calculations are futile and confusing. To be alert and watchful does not mean scanning the heavens. We are to live the life to which Christ has called us, the life of love and unselfish service to those for whom He died.
Faithful waiting. When you think about it, probably the comings of God into your life have been surprises. When we have looked for God, when we wanted God badly, God has often disappointed us. Perhaps this is because God does not want to be wanted as much as served.
Wanting God can be an expression of selfishness. God doesn’t always keep appointments we have made, but God will sideswipe you, or rear-end you or come up on your blind side. God is unpredictable, uncontrollable, surprising.
This is why Advent is the season of surprises. We celebrate again the surprise he gave us more than two thousand years ago when God entered our world as a tiny baby, just like any one of us. No one expected that, not in Jerusalem, and, certainly, not from Nazareth! The Jess had been expecting for years, but they expected a Jewish Caesar. A baby who would grow as a disloyal Jew? Hardly. Advent is a time for remembering how he came, and to prepare recognize him whenever he comes again. It is a special time to be spiritually alert – a season of surprises. Jesus would say, “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” ( Mark 13:32.)