I have the interesting privilege of waking up the other members of my household each morning. I rise 30 minutes (hopefully) before everyone else to begin my day in prayer. Then, after I have finished, I proceed to make sure my wife and three kids are also awake so that we can have some prayer as a family to begin the day. This process can vary day to day, but it has taken on a certain routine that I can expect, and as a result, I can prepare to make waking up as least contentious as possible.
The person who I rarely have to wake up is my five year old daughter. She can be better at waking up to my first alarm than I. As a result, she is often reading in the living room with me as I begin the Liturgy of the Hours. My two year old daughter shares a room with the five year old. Consequently, she is often awoken by my five year old daughter exiting the room. She also often accompanies me in the living room during my morning prayer. Both of my girls go to bed at a reasonable hour and fall asleep relatively quickly, which helps them be such early risers.
My eight year old son is another story. Being older, he goes to bed, slightly later, and it often takes him 30-90 minutes to fall asleep once he is in bed. As a result, it takes him a bit longer to wake up, and the process may involve some gentle or not so gentle persuasion. Sometimes, if he has the ability to sleep in, or it is an exciting day, he excitedly jumps out of bed. But most days it is a process that demands patience, gentleness, and possible threats as a last resort to have him join the rest of the family. The rising habits of all of my children have provided me with a recent reflection on the spiritual life.
St. Paul exhorts the Ephesians when quoting an early Christian hymn, O Sleeper, Awake; Arise from the dead. He uses this language to describe the transition from sinfulness to repentance. Jesus calls the sinner to go from slumber to awareness; from death into life, and each of us has the opportunity to respond to this call in our own way.
My oldest daughter represents those who have a robust spiritual life. They do the preparation of receiving God’s call (the spiritual equivalent of going to sleep at a reasonable hour) to be able to rise whenever they are called to do so. They are excited to take on the Christian life with their heavenly Father. My youngest daughter, who is awoken by her sister’s excitement for the day, represents an often unidentified group of Christians who do the necessary preparation to answer God’s call, but still need the assistance of a stronger Christian community to have excitement for the spiritual life. For them, the joy of following God is not always enough to inspire them to rise quickly, but the joy of doing so with close friends is. It is the hope that one day, that their joy will also come from God himself.
My son represents many of us who can struggle to answer God’s call with a joyful disposition. Torn by the love of the things of this world, we can hold tight to our covers and desire the darkness that still envelops us. Some days it is easy to respond to the call when we have done the preparation (gotten enough sleep) or when there is something exciting to do with God that day, but as a whole it takes patient gentleness or even some tough love from God to pry us from our bed.
So as we continue on our spiritual journey, we must ask ourselves: Do we awake daily from the slumber of sin? Do we joyfully arise with our Father? Or do we hold tight to our darkness and worldly comforts when God is calling us to a greater life? If we want to rise with him, then we need to do the necessary things to prepare ourselves for the coming day. And for the Christian, those things are leaving behind the things of this world to immerse ourselves in the prayer, the sacraments, and charitable works. Doing these in the community of the Body of Christ will give us the strength and joy we need to arise because this is the day that the Lord has made, and we are called to rejoice and be glad in it.
