Staying Alert by Jorge Mario Bergoglio — Read

SAINT EPHREM THE DEACON, in his Commentary on the Diatesseron (18: 15-17), tells us: "The Lord concealed (the time of his coming) so that we would be watchful and so that each of us might think that it could happen in our own time. With the last coming will happen something similar to what happened in the first coming. But how can the time be unknown to the one who has determined this day from all eternity and has described in detail the signs that will precede it? Nevertheless, by speaking thus, he has invited us to consider these signs so that the generations of every century will now and always think that his coming might happen in their own time... and so that they will stay awake, because when the body sleeps, it is human nature that rules it; in such a state, we are guided not by our will but by the impulses of our nature. And when a profound stupor born of pusillanimity or sadness pervades the soul, then the soul is ruled by the enemy, and, under the effects of that stupor, the soul does what it does not wish to do. Impulses dominate our nature, and the enemy rules our soul. That is why the Lord recommends that we remain vigilant in the whole of our being: in the body so as to avoid drowsiness and in the soul so as to avoid indolence and pusillanimity."

THE LORD IS "he who comes," and so we must be watchful and remain vigilant. We must await his revelation. He will manifest himself. Revelation means uncovering something that is veiled, bringing it out of hiding. Manifestation implies a type of transfiguration: it is epiphany. We can begin this meditation by considering chapter 60 of Isaiah.