Luke 21:34-38: in context

As Jesus closes his teaching about the last things, he gives a warning about the state of the heart. Be careful, he says, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly, like a snare. Therefore, he says, be watchful at all times, praying that you may have strength to stand before the Son of Man. He names two very different things that can weigh the heart down and leave us unready: dissipation, and the ordinary cares of this life.

It is worth noticing what Jesus lists as weighing the heart down. We might expect him to warn only against carousing and drunkenness, the obvious dissipations that dull the soul; and he does. But alongside them he names something quieter and more respectable: the cares of this life. The everyday worries and anxieties, the concerns of ordinary living, can weigh the heart down and leave us spiritually dull and unready just as surely as indulgence can. Both the pleasures that dissipate us and the cares that consume us have the same effect: they weigh the heart down, make it heavy and distracted, and leave us unprepared for the Lord. This is a searching warning, because the cares of this life do not feel like a spiritual danger. Dissipation we recognize as harmful; but the cares of life seem legitimate, even necessary, and we do not notice how they weigh the heart down, crowd out attentiveness to God, and leave us dull and distracted. Jesus names them alongside drunkenness as things that make the heart heavy and the soul unready. The cares of the world, he says elsewhere, choke the word. A heart consumed by anxiety and the concerns of ordinary life is as unready, in its way, as a heart dulled by indulgence. And against both, Jesus calls for watchfulness: be alert at all times, praying for strength. The remedy for a heart weighed down, whether by pleasure or by care, is a wakeful, praying attentiveness to God, a heart kept light and alert rather than heavy and distracted. This calls us to watch our hearts. Are they weighed down, made heavy and dull, whether by the dissipations that indulge us or by the cares that consume us? Both leave us unready. Jesus calls us to stay awake, to pray, to keep our hearts from being weighed down by either, alert and attentive to God rather than heavy with pleasure or care. Watch at all times, he says, and pray; and a wakeful heart, kept light and attentive to God, is ready to stand before the Son of Man.

Is my heart weighed down and made dull, whether by the dissipations that indulge me or, more quietly, by the cares of this life that consume me, and can I heed Jesus' call to watch and pray at all times, keeping my heart from being made heavy by either pleasure or anxiety, alert and attentive to God rather than distracted and unready?