Luke 21:34-38: a reflection

34“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly. 35For it will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth. 36Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.” 37Every day Jesus was teaching in the temple, and every night he would go out and spend the night on the mountain that is called Olivet. 38All the people came early in the morning to him in the temple to hear him.

Jesus warns his disciples to guard their hearts: Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly. Watch and pray, he says, that you may be alert. He names two things that can weigh down and dull the heart: the indulgence of pleasures, and the anxieties of life. Both can make the heart heavy, dull, spiritually asleep, so that we are caught unprepared. He calls us instead to keep the heart alert.

Notice the two things Jesus warns can weigh down the heart: indulgence and the cares of life. Both, in different ways, dull the heart spiritually. Indulgence, the pursuit of pleasures, dulls us with its heaviness; and the cares of this life, its anxieties and worries, weigh us down and preoccupy us, crowding out spiritual alertness. Either way, the heart grows heavy, dull, spiritually asleep, unprepared. Jesus calls his disciples to guard against both, keeping the heart alert through watchfulness and prayer.

That warning is worth heeding, for our hearts can be weighed down and dulled in just these ways. The indulgence of pleasures, and the anxieties and cares of life, can both make our hearts heavy, spiritually dull, so that our alertness to God fades and we are caught unprepared. Guard your heart against being weighed down by indulgence and by the cares of life; both dull the heart and crowd out spiritual alertness. Do not let the pursuit of pleasures or the anxieties of life make your heart heavy and spiritually asleep; keep it alert through watchfulness and prayer, as Jesus counseled. When you find your heart growing dull, weighed down by indulgence or by anxious cares, take heed; guard against both, and keep your heart alert to God through watchfulness and prayer, that you may not be caught spiritually asleep, but be alert and ready, as Jesus called his disciples to be.

Lord Jesus, you warned your disciples to guard their hearts: be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly; watch and pray, that you may be alert. Show me the two things you warn can weigh down the heart: indulgence and the cares of life. Both dull the heart spiritually. Indulgence, the pursuit of pleasures, dulls me with its heaviness; and the cares of this life, its anxieties and worries, weigh me down and preoccupy me, crowding out spiritual alertness. Either way, the heart grows heavy, dull, spiritually asleep. Help me heed that warning, for my heart can be weighed down and dulled in just these ways. Guard my heart against being weighed down by indulgence and by the cares of life; both dull the heart and crowd out spiritual alertness. Keep the pursuit of pleasures or the anxieties of life from making my heart heavy and spiritually asleep; help me keep it alert through watchfulness and prayer, as you counseled. When I find my heart growing dull, weighed down by indulgence or anxious cares, help me take heed; guard against both, and keep my heart alert to you, Lord, through watchfulness and prayer, that I may not be caught spiritually asleep, but be alert and ready. Keep my heart from being weighed down.