First Sunday of Advent. Fr Robert Verrill tells us why Jesus's death on the Cross is a little like television.
Jesus takes watching very seriously. In today's short Gospel reading, Jesus tells us four times to watch – he's really hammering it home.
Nowadays if you talk about watching, probably one of the first things that comes to mind is watching TV. In the TV series the Simpsons, Homer Simpson represents the archetypal TV watcher; his daughter Lisa invariably represents the voice of sanity. In one episode, Lisa tells her father 'It's not our fault our generation has short attentions spans. We watch an appalling amount of TV.' Homer replies angrily 'Don't you ever, EVER talk that way about television.'
Watching lots of TV changes us. Whether you love it or hate it, television has had a massive impact on modern society. Of the many ways television affects us, one particular way is its ability to keep us awake. It's generally considered to be a bad idea to watch TV in bed. On the other hand, a person who has a job such as keeping watch over a desolate reception area during the night might be allowed to watch TV to help to stay awake.
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