Wait in faith

Friday, December 02, 2016

Waiting, waiting, waiting . . . one of the great Advent themes is based upon that one word: wait.

We are impatient. We want things to be wrapped up quickly. We don’t like long lines. We expect mysteries to be solved within the hour of a television program. Children (and sometimes adults) count the days until Christmas and try to do anything they can to hurry up its coming). And, we must add, more than one adult starts eagerly awaiting the coming of January 2, when all the hoopla will be over and done with.

How long, Lord, . . . . how long will you come? How long before you rectify this injustice? How long before you bring me through sweet death? How long before you take away this character defect from me? How long before you bring peace to our world, you who are called the Prince of Peace? Things are getting worse, not better, Lord: How long before you fix this mess we are in?

And almost always, the answer is, wait. Wait in faith in what you cannot see now. Wait in faith for the eventual resolution of everything that hurts in your life. Wait until your trial has run its course. It will, you  know, but remember that God’s time is not the same as our linear sense of time to which we are bound during our earthly lives.

That is why it is so good to meditate, to enter a realm where time releases its hold on us, even for a few brief moments. That is also why it is so good to read the psalms, even though they ask “how long,” and noticing that some of the psalms of lament end up being psalms of praise before they are finished---but remember that the psalms are in the realm of eternal time, not linear time.

During these first few days of Advent, we hear proclaimed some of the wonderful promises of Isaiah, promises of things that have not yet been brought to fulfillment, even though thousands of years have passed. Their purpose, I suspect, is to help us set our eyes on what lies beyond the realm of human imagining and to realize that we, too, are part of this eternal time when the promises will come true:

“On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see . . . . . the tyrant will be no more and the arrogant will have gone . . . .those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction.”  (Isaiah 29:17-24---the first reading for today’s Mass).

These things shall come to pass. The trials in your life will come to an end. The mysteries will be cleared up. And you will be given a great sign of hope: the birth of the Son of God lying upon straw in a tiny cave in a subjugated city in a part of the world marked by strife and violence for centuries. In the darkness there is a great light. Hope for it; long for it; gaze upon it; and pray that your faith may be straightened.

God bless you! Have a blessed weekend, this second Sunday of Advent.