To watch Fr. Joe’s homily from the First Sunday of Advent: CLICK HERE!
I would guess that if we had it our way we would never wait for anything or anyone. Look at all the attempts to lessen our waiting…
- Drive thru’s
- Door Dash
- Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less or it is free
- Texting and who knows what is the in thing today…
- One day delivery
- Order now and pick it up in 30 minutes
- Avoid the lines, purchase on line
- I even saw a service that delivers your ordered food to you at your airport gate from an eatery in the airport…
- And I won’t even talk about aggressive driving… aggressive shopping… or intolerance and outright disrespect towards people….
And of course, we do want a quick response when we call 911… but every situation of daily life is not a 911 situation…
So here we are 24 days away from Christmas, and the Church reminds us during this season of ADVENT, of the many people of faith throughout the centuries that waited for the coming of the Christ Child…
People of faith who believed that God would keep his word and in time, and when it was the right time, God would do so. Talk about waiting…
Of course, for us the wait is over, but in a sense the wait for God to come more fully into our lives and our world is still a work in progress.
Advent thought? Might we be more patient with those moments of waiting in our lives, waiting for something to begin (like Mass), waiting for someone to meet us, waiting for a light to turn green before driving, waiting for ourselves to see… to appreciate those moments that seem to be keeping us from something, as moments that are God given opportunities for reflection, kindness, and action…
And waiting has another side to it.
Sometimes others are waiting for us… try not to keep them waiting…
Sometimes others are waiting for us… to do something, maybe it is time to act upon that delayed action of kindness, life, love or promise.
Sometimes God is waiting for us… to take the next step in being the person of faith, hope and love we are all called to…
Just maybe the next 24 days are meant to be more than Christmas shopping and Christmas parties…
Maybe they are meant to remind us that we all need to be “Patience People” waiting with hope to see and appreciate God with us and God who is yet to come into our lives and world today, tomorrow and every day.