The question that the season of Advent poses is a very simple one: What exactly/really are you waiting for?
The question is not intended to be answered on a superficial level – e.g., “I am waiting for more snow! I am waiting for a lottery win! I am waiting for a Packer super bowl win!” Rather, the question, like the season of Advent, is an invitation to reflect seriously on our relationship with God, to be honest about the health of our spiritual/faith life, to be willing to take time to stop and look at the deep longings of our hearts.
When we do that, we will recognize that what we are really waiting for is to be deeply loved, to be forgiven, to be healed, to be part of a world/society that is at peace and respectful of the dignity of each person. And then we will realize that those deep longings within us are the same as the prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist, the voices of Advent.
Yet there is a problem with how we respond to the question. That is, the answer seems to suggest that something from the outside of ourselves will satisfy all our deep longings. And, if that isn’t happening, then it is those others who are creating the problems, not me. Once everybody else shapes up, I’ll be fine. But that blame game is the original sin which continues to infect our ability to heed the invitation to repentance, to change, to growth. We end up doing all the external religious gestures which make religion a spectator sport to be seen and admired. And the Baptist had some choice adjectives to describe that religious behavior.
The what we are waiting for can be realized only when we give our attention to the who we are waiting for – Jesus. Yet, Jesus is waiting for us! Jesus is waiting for our response! The deep longings of our hearts are already the Spirit of Jesus urging us to a more fruitful connection with Him. In his Advent message to the priests and deacons of the diocese, Bishop Battersby wrote: As we proclaim the Advent message, may the knowledge that we were made and baptized for love, flow through each of us into the lives of our people and the lives the Holy Spirit has deigned that we encounter. We were made for love and love is our reward, now and in eternity…The Incarnation reveals the truth of God’s identity which is love. It reveals the truth that we are loved by a God who desires an intimate union with us.
This year the days of Advent are not many and so we need to be intentional in changing our attitudes and reforming our habits so that justice and peace may flourish in our times and we will be ready to greet the Lord with the right answer.
– Fr. Dennis Lynch