Commentary on the Gospel of
It is not the same doing any activity of our life being half-asleep or sleepy than being awake. For instance, as a student, if I go half-asleep to the class, I usually don’t understand the lesson of that day, but if I am awake, I will comprehend much better the lesson. You, as a worker, students or simply as a person who interacts in the world, can see how important it is to be awake in ordinary things, in order to have a good result.
Something similar happens in spiritual life. We need to be awake to be fully aware of the action of the Spirit in us. In eastern religions, the spiritual pathway is seen as process of awakening. In the same way as the wise masters of history, Jesus Christ, Son of God, tells us about the priority of being awake. But how do we “wake up”?
I only point out three verbs of today’s gospel that may help us because of their symbolism: stay awake, stay up and be alert. Literally stay awake is related to moving with the five senses. So it is an invitation to look at reality in depth, to touch diversity, to smell different scents, to savour slowly inner experience and to listen with attention to others. Stay up sounds like to be calm and live with encouragement, energy mood and joy. Be alert means to be in the present, because to be attentive it is necessary not to worry about past or future, but the present moment.
