Saturday, Thirty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

In the short gospel reading, Jesus makes two calls on his disciples, ‘Watch yourselves’, and ‘Stay awake, praying at all times’. The call to stay away, praying at all times, is a call to watch the Lord, to keep our focus on the Lord. The call to watch the Lord is more fundamental than the call to watch ourselves. It is only by continuing to look upon the Lord in prayer that we will be able to see ourselves as we truly are, as the Lord sees us. When we hear the call of Jesus to pray at all times, we may wonder how we could possibly pray at all times. Yes, we can pray some of the time, but, surely, not ‘all times’. However, Jesus is not calling on us to be on our knees in prayer at all times or to be constantly in the church. That would be impossible for most people. Praying at all times is more a prayerful awareness of the Lord’s presence to us. We can enter into this awareness ‘at all times’, wherever we might be, whatever we might be doing. Just as the Lord is present to us at all times, he calls on us to be present to him at all times. That doesn’t mean we cannot be present to others or to the task of the moment. It is just that our attentiveness to others and to all that we do during the day is contained within an underlying attentiveness to the Lord, that ‘staying awake’ to him that Jesus talks about in the gospel reading. He also assures us in that gospel reading that if we are prayerfully present to him at all times in this way, we will receive from him the strength we need to engage with all that comes our way, ‘all that is going to happen’, in the words of the gospel reading.