The Sunday Before Christmas-- Watching the Door; Preparing for the Kingdom

Jesus Christ says: “Many will come from the East and from the West and take their place at the table in the Kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” In these words the Lord prophesies the future extent of the His Church, which He establishes on the foundation laid in the Patriarchs and the Prophets for the purpose of bringing salvation to the whole world. 

     Many will come from the East and from the West.  The key word here for us today is “many.” Do we observe that the Lord does not say that “all will come from the East and the West.” The Lord is not a pessimist; he is not a negative personality who always sees the bad side of every situation.  No, he sees for certain and infallibly that there are some who will not accept the Lord’s gracious invitation to enter the fellowship of the people of God, and to sit at table in the Kingdom that is to come.  The Lord very deliberately says, “Many will come.” In just the same way, he also says as he institutes the great Mystery of the Eucharist, “This is my Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins.”

     It is curious, and yet appropriate, is it not, that last week we heard the Gospel reading concerning the parable of the banquet, and now on this Sunday we hear the genealogy of Jesus Christ according to St. Matthew.  Among the persons named in the genealogy there are those who accepted the Lord’s gracious invitation to life and salvation.  But, sadly, there are those also who spurned relationship with the Lord, and followed all manner of false gods.  A perfect example is King Solomon, the great and illustrious third king of Israel, who, despite his famed wisdom and the Lord’s great favours to him, abandoned the worship of the true God for the worship of idols.  

     “Many will come from the East and the West,” is a sobering reminder to us that we must do everything possible to have a place among that “many.” Surely there is no better way to keep our attention fixed on our goal – the Kingdom of God, than simply remembering each and every day, and hour by hour, that we do not know when the Lord’s messenger will arrive to summon us to that great banquet.  There is a famous story from a book of sayings of the early monks in the Egyptian desert that illustrates the point:

An elder visited an ascetic who lived in Rhaithou and said to him: “Father, often when I send my disciple on some errand I become worried. My worry gets even greater when my disciple is late in returning.”

     “When I send my attendant out on an errand,” the ascetic answered, “I sit at the door and look at the road. When my thoughts make me uneasy and say to me, ‘Aha, the brother will never come,’ I respond to my thoughts as follows: ‘What if another brother—that is, the Lord’s Angel—should come to get me and lead me off to the Lord; then what would be? I wonder if I am ready for such a meeting?’

     “And so I sit each day and watch the door, weeping for my sins and taking care to correct myself. And while I am crying, I say to myself: ‘I wonder which brother will come earlier—the one from earth or the one from Heaven; that is, my disciple or the Lord’s Angel.’”

     When he heard these things, the ascetic’s visitor was calmed and departed. And from that day forth he too applied the ascetic’s device in his own life.

     This is a very simple and straightforward device indeed, and perhaps we too can make use of it in our lives.  After all, we suffer from the same uncertainty. We do not know when the messenger will arrive to summon us to depart from this life and go forward to eternity. Our fathers’ response to this uncertainty was to be always ready. It was in this way that they came to be among the “many who will come from the East and the West.”

     The story’s expression is “to watch the door” for the arrival of the messenger, as well as for our departure.  The Lord God has been consistently telling us human beings to “watch the door” for a very long time.  Remember, for example, the Lord tells the people of Israel to eat the Passover in a very particular way.  They have to wear their belts, and carry their staves in their hands, like people in flight. In other words, the people of Israel were told to “watch the door,” and be ready for their departure from the land of Egypt. 

     Do we lose anything by assuming that the Lord’s messenger will arrive today? Actually, it is quite the contrary.  If we truly and sincerely expect the Lord’s messenger everyday, and every hour of every day, we become generous, more giving people. We will treat others with great respect, and we will refrain from the sins, born of anger, lust and the other passions, since all of these transitory and passing things lose their luster and charm when their impermanence is revealed. What possession would we not part with, if we knew that the Lord’s messenger was coming in fifteen minutes?   Or, by what could we become angered? There is surely no better way to remind ourselves of the impermanence of the things of this life than to assiduously “watch the door.”

     If we fail to “watch the door,” then how can we expect to receive the Lord’s messenger when he comes? Will we not certainly receive him with fright and upset, if not with the rudeness reserved for uninvited guests? Surely, none who receive the Lord’s messenger in such a way deserve to be with the Lord—to be among the “many” at His table everlastingly. 

     No, rather let us “watch the door,” and when we are summoned let us put aside what we are doing and, without regret or anxiety, go.