Eager Patience
First Reading ~ Isaiah 63:16d-17, 64:1, 3b-8
Second Reading ~ 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Psalm ~ Psalm 80: 2-3, 15-16, 18-19
Gospel ~ Mark 13:33-37
This Advent I'm learning - slowly and imperfectly - how to make room for a Babe in my heart and my life. This daily series at Ardent Devotion documents my journey with God's word throughout Advent, and the little ways in which He is revealing His Truth to me day by day. I invite you to join with me in committing to a Christ-filled Advent, so that we can arrive at the manger-side with wondrous hearts.
The 1st Sunday of Advent
As the old saying goes, "A watched pot never boils." A recent egg-cooking escapade of mine bore true testimony to that fact (although the discovery, some ten minutes in, that I hadn't actually turned the stove on may have contributed to the delay in boiling). In an age of instant gratification, waiting for things remains an infuriating prospect. As a raw cookie-dough eating, frequent Facebook-message refreshing teenager, I've little doubt as to my own impatience - especially when it comes to my spiritual life. My prayer journal is filled with pages of fretting; of complaining; of raging at God because He isn't doing it right! Most of the time, this frustration with God is a result of my own impatience.
With so many things in life, God's timing is radically different to what we ourselves would choose. His thoughts are not our thoughts; His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). Quite frequently, He chooses to leave us wanting - whether for a sure sign as to His will for our lives or for the fulfillment of something we know to be His will for us - in order to test our faith. Like the Master of the House in today's Gospel, He wants to ensure that we will remain faithful - watching and waiting - even when it seems like His promises are never going to be fulfilled.
For millennia, God made promises to His people: beautiful, hope-inspiring promises that spoke of a Saviour who would redeem and restore them from darkness. But His promises were not immediately fulfilled. The people waited. They agonized and despaired and believed that God had forsaken them. They doubted His promises would ever be fulfilled, and so turned their backs on Him.
The issue we often face as Catholics is that we want good things. Like the Israelites who for so long desired the birth of their Messiah (a good and beautiful thing which God did promise would occur), we joyfully anticipate the many beautiful things God has placed on our horizons. Whether He is calling you to a particular place, adventure or state of life, I'm sure there is some good and true thing on your heart right now that God has whispered to you in the silence. And it's good and true to want those things. But we have to be careful not only "to want and desire good things for their own sake, but also to want and desire them in a way that is good... that is to say our wanting must always be caring, peaceful, patient, detached and abandoned to God." (Searching for and Maintaining Peace, Fr Jacques Philippe)
When our eagerness for something turns into impatience, we eventually begin to mistrust God and doubt that He will ever fulfill His promises. And so we strive to control our futures and our lives. We eat the cookie dough before it is cooked and open our Christmas presents the night before. In our haste to see good things come about, it's easy to mistake Satan's empty promises for Truth and accept a counterfeit. But only God knows exactly when we need things.
I'm pretty sure that I, like many, will struggle my whole life with impatience. I will struggle to trust God's timing, and try to hasten the fulfillment of His promises. But I recognise that all of my striving and controlling will only end up rendering me anxious, agitated and therefore less capable of doing anything good for His kingdom. At the end of the day, our God is faithful. He sent His only Son to Earth to be the fulfillment of every promise, every hope and every desire for Truth. And He sent Him at exactly the right moment. The birth of Christ was anointed for a specific moment in history; likewise, if God has anointed something for your life - if you are called by His grace to something intrinsically good - it will happen. But maybe not exactly when you think; maybe not exactly when you want.
We are called to an eager patience. To wait in trust and in peace - but to never cease to eagerly and joyfully anticipate the fulfillment of all He has in store for us. We're called to count down the days until His birth this Christmas with full and excited hearts, knowing that He will make all things beautiful in their time.
And in our waiting patiently for Him, He will transform us. He wants us to let Him sculpt us and re-create us in Truth, like clay in the potter's hand (Isaiah 64:7). We will be formed by our waiting - because He works for the good of those who wait for Him.
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Hail and blessed be the hour and the moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin, at a stable, at midnight in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech thee, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through our Saviour Jesus Christ and His most blessed Mother.
AMDG
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