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Advent
Waiting
December
2, 2007
Matthew
24:37-44
Advent
is about waiting, waiting for the good things which are to
come. But not all waiting is the same. In fact, we can distinguish
two specific kinds of waiting. The first kind is waiting for
things we are certain will take place. The second kind is
waiting for those things that we are less certain will take
place. The first kind of waiting requires patience; the second
kind of waiting requires trust.
A
great deal of waiting in our life is of the first kind. It
is the waiting we do as we wait in the checkout line. No matter
how slow the people are in front of us, no matter how many
thumbs the cashier has, we know that if we are patient, if
we hold on, we will eventually get to the head of the line,
make our purchase, and be able to go home. This first kind
of waiting also applies as we anticipate an important celebration
that is soon to occur. It is the waiting that children experience
as they anticipate Christmas, or the waiting as we look forward
to a get-away trip or an upcoming anniversary. We know that
if we are patient, if we hold on, time will pass, the day
will come, and we will have the celebration. So this first
kind of waiting has as its object a goal that is close to
us and is clear.
The
second kind of waiting has a goal that is less clear and less
certain. It is the waiting of Advent. This kind of waiting
occurs when someone we love is diagnosed with a serious sickness.
We wait to see what the treatment will be, if the treatment
will succeed, if the health problem will be resolved. We wait
for a healthy and positive resolution, but how and if that
resolution will occur is not always clear. This second kind
of waiting is looking for someone to love, waiting for another
with whom to share life and marriage. How and if that person
is to be found is less than clear. This second kind of waiting
takes place as we look forward in the years ahead and retirement.
We look for days in which we no longer have to bear the burden
of a regular routine, when we will have our health, when we
continue in some new way to be productive. But how and if
that retirement will come is less than clear.
Some
of the most important issues of life are what we wait for
in this second kind of waiting. It is certainly more significant
than waiting in the checkout line. But our ability to understand
how it will occur and if it will occur is less clear. That
is why for this second kind of waiting we do not so much need
patience as trust. This second kind of waiting is the waiting
of Advent. It is an act of faith. It is an act of belief that
our lives are not random or arbitrary, that there is a God
who is guiding our life out of love and toward salvation.
Advent
waiting is not simply a strategy. It is a way of life. If
we enter into this kind of waiting, it changes us. It changes
the way that we look at our present and at our future. It
leads us to believe that, however our life unfolds, God is
a part of that unfolding. However we move towards the good
things we are waiting for, God is involved in bringing those
good things about.
What
we are waiting for is God's own Advent, God's own coming into
our lives. That's why Paul today says in the second reading
that we are closer to our salvation than when we first believed.
God is on the move; God is coming. That's why Matthew says
today in the gospel that we need to be awake. We need to be
ready, because we do not know how and when our God will arrive.
So
the waiting of Advent is a waiting of trust, of trust in a
God who is with us, in a God who will emerge in our lives.
We wait then, expecting God's arrival. We do not know when
God will come. We trust that God will bring healing and love
and retirement to our lives. We are not sure that God will
bring those things about as we expect, and perhaps not even
as we prefer. But we believe, as we wait in trust, that we
who place our trust in God will not be disappointed.
So
then let us entrust ourselves to God in this Advent season.
Let us take whatever need we have, whatever good desire we
have, whatever hope we have, and entrust it to God's care.
Let us believe that God will take our request and act upon
it. Let us try to live this upcoming week in the firm conviction
that, however God acts upon what we ask, however our life
unfolds, the outcome that God will bring about is well worth
waiting for.
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