Sunday, December 4, 2016

Homily: 2nd Sunday of Advent 2016 - Advent Waiting

Waiting. We’re not very good at that anymore. Maybe we never were. In this age of instant-gratification, we get frustrated if we have to wait for any length of time. Waiting in traffic, waiting in the doctor’s office, waiting in line at the grocery check-out. Waiting feels like time wasted. And who can afford to waste time these days? We have too much to do. Every second counts.

Advent is a time of waiting, not of celebrating Christmas early. To truly enter into the spirit of the Advent season, we meditate upon all those centuries when God’s people awaited the coming of the Messiah and the fulfillment of His promises. And the Jews didn’t just wait a few months or years…they waited generations, centuries. They waited 2000 years for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham God’s promise to Abraham to send a Lamb of Sacrifice—they waited 2000 years for the one John the Baptist called the “Lamb of God”

Pope Benedict spoke one Advent about the importance of waiting, he said:

“Our whole personal, familial and social existence passes through this dimension of waiting. Waiting is something that is present in a 1,000 situations, from the smallest and most banal to the most 
important, which draw us in completely and in the deepest way. Among these, we think of a husband and wife waiting for a child; of waiting for a relative or friend who is coming from far away to visit us; we think of a young person waiting to know his grade on a major exam or the outcome of a job interview; in romantic relationships, of waiting to meet the beloved person, of waiting for a letter, or of receiving forgiveness... One could say that man is alive so long as he waits, so long as hope is alive in his heart…”

One wonders if we lose something essential of our humanity the more impatient we become. Before the over-commercialization of the season, you didn’t see Christmas decorations in the stores in late October like you do now. We don’t sing Christmas hymns in Church like Joy to the World and silent night during Advent. We don’t put out the nativity scene yet. Because it’s not time, we are still waiting. We light the Advent candles as a sign of keeping vigil—remaining mindful of the one we are waiting for.

Continuing his reflection, Pope Benedict said,” Every one of us especially in this season in which we prepare for Christmas, can ask himself: What am I waiting for? For what, in this moment of my life, does my heart long for? And this same question can be posed at the level of the family, of the community, of the nation. What are we waiting for, together?”

An interesting set of questions the Holy Father asks us. What am I waiting for? For those of you who just thought, “I’m waiting for this homily to be over”…you are getting coal for Christmas. There is something quite profound in that question there: if we are in a hurry to fulfill our religious obligations…have we begun them with the right spirit? I’m not saying we should rejoice when Mass goes an extra five minutes…but I hope you would be upset if we simply rushed through Mass just to “get it over with”.

Waiting, can teach us something important: I’d like to propose five lessons from waiting:
One. Waiting reminds us that we are not the center of the universe. It’s so easy to get caught up in our own plans, convinced that everything we do is absolutely, crucially important. Being forced to wait gives us the opportunity to remember that other people have plans and priorities as well. Waiting is good for ego.

Two. Waiting reminds us that God is in control. When we are tempted to give up hope, or turn to God and say, God, who are you to make me wait, who are you to make demands on me, we remember the words God spoke to Job: Where were you when I made the cosmos? Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? So waiting helps us to remember who is in charge of the universe. Waiting is humbling.

Sometimes, in our prayer lives, when we pray and pray and pray for a particular intention, and we don’t see our petition granted, the temptation is to give up on our prayer, to give up on God. St. Monica, remember prayed 40 years for the conversion of her son…she patiently waited for her heart’s desire.  Sometimes God waits for us to become as humble as we should…before he grants a petition.

Thirdly, Waiting reminds us that life is a gift. God didn’t have to make us. Every day, every hour we have to enjoy the good things of the earth, to enjoy the gift of family and friends, every day we have to work overcome our sinful tendencies is a gift. Forced to sit at a stop light for several precious minutes, I have a choice. I can choose to grumble and gripe about the loss of my precious time, or I can remember that those very minutes were a gift God gave me so that I might have the opportunity to live for his glory. Sure, this wasn’t how I’d planned to use them. But that doesn’t change the gift.
Forthly, waiting reminds us that the present matters. Sometimes waiting frustrates us because we’re too future-oriented, focused on what comes next. We hurry through Mass, we hurry through a meal, we hurry through our prayers, in order to get to the next thing. But when we hurry through our tasks, we fail to savor the present.

Sometimes, I like to go through the Old Testament psalms and pray them very slowly, meditating on the meaning of each word, savoring what God is saying through the sacred text. Reading through the 31,000 verses of the bible is not as important as understanding the meaning of them. In order to understand the scriptures sometimes we need to wait, to chew on them slowly.

Finally, waiting reminds us to live recollectedly. Waiting can be uncomfortable because it forces us to think about what really matters in our lives. It causes us to confront our doubts and questions. And some of us live so un-reflectively that waiting, questioning, doubting, is terrifying. Waiting causes us to confront the fact that we only have a finite amount of time on this earth. And maybe, just maybe, I haven’t been using the time I’ve been given so wisely, pursuing things that really matter.  Waiting reminds us that we are part of something much larger. A story not of our own creation, but God’s.
So next time you are waiting in traffic, or waiting in line at the supermarket, instead of distracting yourself with your smart phone, consider these truths: I’m not the center of the universe. God is in control. This time is a gift. I need to slow down, anyway. For what or for whom do I long for most deeply?

Pope Benedict concluded his reflection on waiting, by pointing to the example of the Blessed Mother. Mary was a women who waited patiently and with grace. And when she did God accomplished something in her life even she didn’t expect. She gives us the final lesson on waiting. When we wait on God with open minds and hearts, he fills us with grace and self-knowledge and peace and joy that we never expected.


Let us learn from her, the woman of Advent, to live with a new spirit of a profound expectation that only the coming of God can fulfill, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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