Our Lord bids us to be vigilant, not out of fear, but because the world is not our true home. To ‘gird your loins’ is no idle metaphor; it is the act of a soldier who knows the battle is real though unseen, the traveller who knows the road is long but worth every step. Christ does not ask us to be anxious, but awake. The drowsiness of comfort, the slow poison of distraction these are the true dangers. We are called to live with lamps lit and hearts ready, not because the night is long, but because the dawn is certain.