When We Gonna Wake Up
That’s the basic question for all of us: When are we going
to wake up? Spiritual teachers inside and beyond the Church all say the same
thing – Wake Up! Tony De Mello, the Jesuit priest and psychotherapist would
remind everyone he ever taught, most of us, whether we know it or not, are
sleep-walking through life. We are born asleep. We live asleep, we marry in our
sleep, we have children and raise families in our sleep. And we die in our
sleep without ever waking up. We rarely if ever take time to understand the
loveliness and beauty of this thing we call human existence. All the mystics of
any and all religious traditions, no matter what their theology, no matter what
their religion, or no religion, are unanimous on one thing: all shall be well,
all shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well. Though everything is a
mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But tragically, most people
never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.
WAKE UP! [Awareness, Anthony De Mello, p 5]
You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you
to wake from sleep. Romans 13:11
I remember my seminary faculty advisor, professor of Church
History, priest and friend Fred Shriver, preaching at Church of the Good
Shepherd, Ruxton, MD reminding us that the fundamental teaching of Jesus sees
him breaking bread. Not a little or even oversize wafer, but a crusty loaf of
peasant bread. See him now at the table with his closest friends the night before
he is to be crucified on a Roman cross. He takes the bread. Blesses the bread.
Breaks the bread. And Gives it to them. This is my body given to you and given
for the world. Take, Bless, Break and Give. The summary of his life, death and
resurrection. Take, Bless, Break and Give/Share. That’s the spiritual life
Jesus taught. Listen as the crust breaks open. I invite you to open your heart
it seems to say. Let me into your life, into your heart, into your mind he is
saying. Allow me to break you open and awaken you to new life, true life,
eternal life. That cracking of the crust that we think is there to protect us,
that we maintain to keep everything close and tightly kept inside. Listen to
the sound of the bread being broken, he seems to say. When you see me break it
allow it to awaken you. Wake Up!
Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your
Lord is coming. Matthew 24:42
Tony De Mello tells the story of a father who knocks on his
son’s bedroom door and says, “John, wake up.” John answers, “I don’t want to
wake up, papa.” The father shouts, “Get up, you have to go to school.” John
says, “I don’t want to go to school.” “Why not,” asks his father. “I have three
reasons,” says Jaime. “First, because it is so dull. Second, because the kids
tease me. And third, I hate school.” And the father says, “I am going to give
you three reasons why you must go to school: First, because it is your duty;
second, because you are forty-five years old; and third, because you are the
headmaster.” Wake up! Wake up! You have grown up! You are too big to stay
asleep. Stop playing with your toys. WAKE UP!
Wake up, and strengthen what remains… Revelation 3:2
Most people want to stay in kindergarten. But don’t believe
it. They want you to fix their broken toys. “Give me back my marriage. Give me
back my job, my money, my reputation, my success.” Waking up is unpleasant. It
is comfortable to be in bed. It is irritating to be woken up. The wisest
spiritual teachers do not attempt to wake people up. It is none of my business,
they say. Even though from time to time they urge us to wake up, they know. They
know that they can only dance their dance and live their lives and if we wake
up and learn something, so be it. If not, fine. As the saying goes, “The nature
of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes, and flowers in
the gardens.” Look at the image of Jesus in the third chapter of Revelation
(there is no “s”). “Behold, I stand at the door and knock!” The famous
pre-Raphelite painting of this by William Holman Hunt shows that there is no
door handle on Jesus’s side of the door. He cannot open us up. He can only
knock on our door. He can only break open the crust that keeps us asleep in our
beds of idleness, presumed knowledge, false senses of security, unaware that
things shall be well and are well if only we will open our eyes, our hearts,
our minds, open the door and wake up. WAKE UP!
Shoshin. Shoshin, is a Japanese word. It means “beginner’s
mind.” As Shunyru Suzuki teaches, “In the beginner’s mind there are many
possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” We think waking up is hard
to do. To practice Shoshin is hard. To unlearn what we think we already know is
difficult and too much work. To wake up means to always keep our beginner’s
mind – to always encounter the things we do and say as if for the first time.
This is hard to do. We begin Advent and think it is a time to prepare for
Christmas, the birth of the Christ child. But, with a beginner’s mind, we learn
that Advent means coming, and that it was originally meant to be a time to wake
up and to prepare for the Risen Lord to come again into our messy and suffering
world. It is a time to stop all the busyness that distracts us from our
beginner’s mind and allow Jesus to break open our hearts, our minds, our lives
so we can open the door and welcome him in right now, right here. Because.
Because he is here, now. He promises to be with us to the “end of the age.” All
shall be well. All is well when we open the door. But unless we practice
beginner’s mind, we forget this promise he makes to all of his followers, his
disciples, those who say they walk in his way, and yet forget to stop to heal
the sick, welcome the immigrant- stranger, visit those in prison, clothe the
naked and give a drink to those who are thirsty.
Behold, he stands at the door and knocks. There is no handle
on his side of the door. The only handle is on our side of the door. Do we even
hear him knock? Or, are we so dead-tired and asleep from all the distractions
of this life, this world, that we cannot even hear him knocking? Let alone do
we wake up, walk over and open the door? And what does chapter three of
Revelation (no “s”) say will happen if we do wake up and open the door? “Behold!
I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I
will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” That is the promise. We
will have a marvelous meal and party with him! We will wake up and discover all
is well. If only we will practice beginner’s mind, wake up, walk over, open the
door and let Jesus in!
And to those who have ears, he says listen: WAKE UP! Your
life and the life of the world depends on it. When we gonna wake up, when we
gonna wake up, when we gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?
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