“Waiting” (12/01/2024)

Advent arrives today. It will be interesting to see how our “instant” society grapples with “waiting” this year. It is our season of “waiting” with faith, buoyed by hope in a LORD who never disappoints, and fueled by love for our LORD and one another. It’s a season of “already but not yet.” It’s a time of preparations for a memorial celebration of our LORD’s coming among us that first Christmas but also a time of considering His coming again and preparing ourselves for that moment.

Today’s second reading reminds us that there is one way to prepare for both. Paul’s 1st Letter to the Thessalonians sets out our mandate:

Brothers and sisters:

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen. (1st Thes 3:12-13)

Our days of Advent are to be days of loving kindness toward our sisters and brothers in Christ and days of loving well and deeply and intensely our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is a time for reaching out to others with greetings, with gifts of love, with thoughtfulness. But it is also a time for reaching deep within ourselves to prepare ourselves for Christ’s coming, to make room for Him to dwell within us.

As we begin this journey of “waiting,” let us open ourselves as fully as possible for our LORD. Let us recognize that we can’t do this alone; let us open ourselves, our schedules, our routines to include prayer because we know we can’t adequately prepare without His help and guidance.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.