“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:34-36

My mother was slipping in and out of consciousness. Unexpectedly, she opened her eyes and asked me if I remembered the time when she waited with me for the school bus. Of course I did. I was a little surprised that she recalled this particular and uneventful episode in this last moment of her life. There was nothing spectacular, no great conversations. We just stood there and waited for the school bus. The driver was always late. I was always bored and restless. My mother was always anxious to get back to her countless tasks waiting at home. Without fail, everyday we went through the same routine. I didn’t think anything of it back then. It wasn’t necessary. My mother took care of everything. I never imagined that this woman would not be with me after I turned 22. Strangely, I do not have many vivid memories of my mother. The thing I remember clearly was shelling beans with her. I was about five. By the time I came along, my mother had acquired the art of delegating duties to the children. There was a wide age gap between my siblings and I. They were in high school and I was the only one idle at home. I remembered it being an endless torture sitting there doing this apparently meaningless task. Today, every single day as I cook, I become that little boy sitting in the kitchen with his mother.

A teenage boy came up to us and shook our hands and acted like he had known us for some time. I do not recall ever meeting him. Finally, I said something about it. “But I know you!”, he responded. “You and your wife used to sit outside the church and wait for us to do something with you.” He added that he was in the juvenile detention center for a while, perhaps this is why we had forgotten about him. Most likely it was because of the fact that he never interacted with us directly. He had just seen us doing the most boring part of our ministry here. Sometimes when we sat there for a long time doing absolutely nothing, I felt like I was wasting precious time. Yet, this young teenager remembers us because of this.

My whole life I have been part of religious traditions (both Roman Catholic and Anglican) which observe the season of Advent. It was a time reminding us that we are a people preparing ourselves for our Lord’s return. The problem is that it is never clear how we go about preparing ourselves. Some people think that it means being aware of the signs of the End. There are a slew of books on this theme. We could waste precious on them. Besides, we have been having these signs since the day Jesus died on the Cross. Furthermore, being well-informed about the signs is not synonymous with being prepared. Jesus is and always will be our example. He spent years preparing Himself for His ministry. It took up a bulk of His life on earth for a ministry lasting a relatively short time. We have no reliable information about this time but there are indications that it was not anything remarkable. The people of his hometown, for example, found it hard to believe that someone as ordinary as Jesus could be the Messiah, even his own family had a hard time with it. Jesus was so engaged in the daily routine things of life that no one expected anything spectacular from this man. The Messiah spent a vast majority of his Life on earth doing mundane things! They became the basis for his parables and teachings. They helped Him connect in a real and concrete way with the people.

There were several occasions in the streets when the teens ask our help with getting their documents. The bureaucracy here gives one a foretaste of purgatory, definitely the devil had an hand in this. Everything which is simple is deliberately complicated for no logical reason. Usually parents here help their children with documents. Our teens do not have this privilege and we are the next best thing. We spent hours in offices with our teens waiting for something which could be done in five minutes. Complaining doesn’t help. It makes matters worse. We just have to sit and endure the monotony. Our teens tend to close up when they are out of their environment. They feel so insecure in these places and even the most outgoing ones become taciturn. On one occasion we were so bored that we were started making up fake background stories of each of the staff who were attending the people. Renan was with us at that time. He found it amusing and joined in the fun. We were laughing so hard that we almost missed his turn. Renan always remembered that moment. He used to talk about it with us even weeks after the fact. It is the most precious memory we have of him. He was murdered a few months later. I am grateful that we had the chance to be with him. It was the only moment where he was no longer a homeless teen but just a regular boy having fun with some adult friends. Thankfully we decided to go with him to do one of the most wearisome things. It turned out to be a gift from God for us.

The Kingdom of God is not like this world. Here we are programmed to be impressed with great and impressive deeds. We find small and so-called insignificant things as obstacles to our greater pursuits. Whereas most of the parables and the teachings of Jesus point to us in the opposite direction. Jesus did not think that thirty years as a carpenter was a waste of his talents. They helped him to become who He was. They gave him the necessary tools to communicate the gospel to the people. The devil wanted Jesus to start big but Jesus chose a humbler route. If we are to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of God, then we appreciate the seemingly meaningless tasks that we are faced with everyday. These things are always present regardless of what happens in the world. Kingdoms might fall, economies might be completely devastated, and another pandemic might be looming around the corner. None of these things changes the fact that we still need to do the tedious and necessary things of everyday life in order to survive. These are simple things that are often overlooked but they have great potential. They are opportunities to show our love. Our children and teens have tons of people willing to do the “big” deeds. There are groups that are willing to feed all the homeless in the city. There are groups that were activated to help them during the worst moment of the pandemic. However, these things happen but for a season. Sometimes, these seasons linger on a bit longer than we like. However, they are not the things which are etched in the minds of those whom we love. It is everyday tasks that register in the hearts and minds of people. Our children and teens want someone to love them in the everyday things. Perhaps we undervalue these things and do not treat them with the respect and reverence as we should. I am thankful that my mother made me sit down in the kitchen and shell beans with her. She would have never imagined that it would become a symbolic moment that I would carry with me all my life.

Our preparation for the Kingdom of God starts with the small and necessary things in life; in other words, the mundane and boring things. These are moments that Life has given us to show our love to those whom we serve. They are moments for us to reflect on the meaning of love. We should not throw these opportunities away, neither should we rush through them. They might be only opportunities to show our love to those whom God has given us in this life. Our journey towards perfection starts with these things. Jesus Himself said, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.” (Luke 16:10)