AUZENNE: Staying Woke ... Advent, justice and vigilance

(Josh Applegate/Unsplash)“Brothers and sisters: You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:11-12).

The First Sunday of Advent always opens with an urgent call to attention. The second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Roman Church is a stark reminder that Christians live at a critical time in salvation history. The promised Messiah has come, conquering sin and death through His passion and resurrection. Now, we wait in joyful expectation for His Second Coming, when He will restore all things. 

While we wait, we are commanded to persist in works of love and mercy, turning away from the numbing effects of sin and temptation. In short, Paul tells Christians, “You know what time it is. Wake up!”

Originally coined by African Americans in the 1910s, to be “awakened” meant recognizing and naming racial prejudice. In the 1960s, Civil Rights leaders tied the term explicitly to scriptural references that spoke about the need to be awakened from the darkness of sin and injustice. Dr. Martin Luther King’s last Sunday sermon, delivered on March 31, 1968, was titled “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.” In it, he spoke about the need for Christians to remain vigilant to the cause of human dignity in the face of rapid advances in technology and weaponry.

Today, “woke” is used as a pejorative to ridicule people and ideologies that are judged (sometimes rightly) to be too extreme in their calls for change. Like many elements of African American culture, it has been co-opted and weaponized; in this case, to demean people who unapologetically advocate for human dignity, even those (like the late Pope Francis) who do so squarely within the context of Christian doctrine. That is unfortunate because, in my opinion, the word “woke” communicates a depth of Gospel justice that is powerful and provocative in the best way.

Our world is filled with things meant to distract us from truth — convenient lies and comfortable deceptions are literally everywhere, thanks to the constant buzz of social media “news.”  To “stay woke” in the scriptural sense demands that we remain fully aware, fully present and fully committed to God’s vision of justice. It means that we must not be caught “sleeping in the job” but instead remain faithful in our service to God as we wait in joyful expectation for Christ’s return.

The Advent command to “stay woke” is the ultimate response to the distractions of this world. In the context of scripture, Christian “wokeness” is an embrace of the profound vigilance rooted in Christ’s message to rebuke sin now; to work for justice now; to love our neighbor now. 

To be spiritually awake means refusing the comfortable deceptions of sin, embracing the difficult work of Gospel justice, and being fully present to the needs of the marginalized. As we enter this season, let us heed Paul’s urgent cry, casting off the works of darkness and preparing ourselves, fully conscious and morally alert, for the coming of the King who makes all things new. ​

Amy Auzenne is the director of the 
Office of Evangelization and Catechesis.