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Waiting

During the season of Advent we are reminded that the Jewish people had to wait for the coming of the Messiah. Indeed during the season of Advent we are drawn into the experience of their long years of waiting. God makes his chosen people wait for the fulfilment of their longings.

Waiting is a holy thing, but it may not be an easy thing, or a popular thing. Our contemporary culture has no time for waiting! It is an instant culture; instant food, instant coffee, instant communication. We want everything now, immediately. This puts our contemporary culture at variance with the spiritual life. The spiritual life is a process of waiting. Spiritual growth does not happen overnight. There are no microwave mystics; no instant saints. Spiritual growth is a gradual process. It takes time, a lot of time. It involves patience and it involves perseverance.

We say that God’s ways are not our ways. It is also true to say that God’s time is not our time! In Advent we are being invited, like the Jewish people, to wait patiently on God to fulfil his plan for us, in us; for me, in me. We see this spirit of waiting in John the Baptist, one of the great Advent figures. John sent messengers to Jesus to ask if he needs to continue to wait: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” (Luke 7:19). Jesus assures John that he has to wait no longer. The Kingdom of God is at hand. John’s waiting is over and it has been rewarded.

Why God makes us wait for what is good for us is not easy to understand. Perhaps it is one of those mysteries that we may just need to accept. What is clear is that waiting increases our desire and kindles our longing. It makes us grateful and helps us to appreciate what has been given to us. It also deepens our trust in God and the deeper our trust in God the freer God is to work in us and through us.

The Season of Hope

We all need some hope in our lives. People look for hope in different places. One place to look is the Gospel. During the few weeks into Christmas we celebrate the season of Advent. The season of Advent is often called the season of hope. So what kind of hope does Advent offer us?

Advent is clear that no matter what we are going through, no matter what difficulties and problems we are dealing with, things will eventually get better. Sooner or later things will improve. There is a brighter future. According to Advent, God will see to it that the good will win out, that light will dispel the darkness, that rough ground will become smooth. The reason for this hope is the utter fidelity of God. God is faithful to his creation, especially to his people. God is not going to abandon what God has created and redeemed. The coming of Jesus into the world is proof of that.

Advent also reminds us that we do in fact already possess a treasure. This treasure is not a treasure made of silver and gold. It is the treasure of love and it is to be found inside us. Inside us there is a Presence living and loving. This Presence is the Presence of Unconditional Love. Because of it we do not need to look for happiness in things outside ourselves, in things like accumulation and achievement and approval. Because of it we can love ourselves as we are and grow in self-esteem. The greatest love of all is to be found inside. Advent invites us to look for it there without fear.

According to Advent another source of hope is in fact our neediness. We must be willing to seek and accept the help of others, including the help of Jesus. Going it alone and attempting to sort out our problems by ourselves does not work. This is called self-sufficiency and it is a form of pride. We need others and they need us. We also need Jesus. There is something liberating about our willingness to acknowledge that we are helpless and powerless. This is the foundation of the AA recovery programme. It is also the basis for creating real community between people. And perhaps this is what we need more than anything else as we face the future – a recovery of the sense of community. We are here to look after each other, not just to look after ourselves. When our lives are built around genuine care and concern for one another then there is always hope.

Practical Love

For the majority of people the days of being governed by a king are long gone. In most parts of the world kingships and kingdoms have given way to governments and democracies. For this reason we are no longer familiar and perhaps even comfortable with what it means to be ruled by a king. For this reason too Christians may find it difficult to relate to the idea that Jesus is our King. If we are able to move beyond any initial reaction we may have we can come to see that the kingship of Jesus is a powerful and beautiful reality in the life of the Christian community.

To have Jesus as our King means that we have someone to look up to, someone who can inspire and guide us. It means too that we have someone who is in control of our lives, someone with power. To know that there is a powerful person in control of our lives makes us feel safe and secure; it also gives us confidence.

Of course there is a particular aspect to the kingship of Jesus that we need to keep in mind. The Gospel tells us that Jesus is the person to whom we must give an account of ourselves when we die. In other words, Jesus and Jesus only is the one who will judge us. But what will Jesus our King base his judgement on? Practical love. Did we care for those in need? Did we feed the hungry? Did we visit the sick and the lonely? Did we clothe the naked? Did we practise what used to be called the corporal works of mercy? St John of the Cross, the Carmelite poet and mystic puts it well. He says, “In the evening of life we will be examined in love.”

It is inspiring and encouraging for us to know that Jesus, our King, leads by example. He does not ask us to do something that he did not do himself. Jesus fed the hungry, he cured the sick, he befriended lepers and social outcasts, he comforted those who felt lost. Jesus was a servant king. In fact, Jesus still is a servant king. Jesus continues to identify himself with the poor, the weak, the unloved. Indeed, in some mysterious way Jesus is actually present in them. “As long as you did this to the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did it to me” (Matt 25:40). We meet Jesus in our neighbour and we serve Jesus in our neighbour. This is why Jesus, our King, will judge us on how we treat others, especially those who are most vulnerable.

November

I once heard God compared to a mother who took her three young children to the seaside on a summer’s day. The children spent most of their time on the beach playing in the sand. Each of them built a sandcastle, according to his or her ability. When they had finished their work, their mother came to look at what they had done. She praised each of them individually for their achievements. On returning home the mother fed her children, washed them and put them to bed. Then she sat down to relax. She was happy with the day at the seaside; pleased that her children enjoyed themselves on the beach and that they were safe. And in the meantime the tide came in and washed away the sandcastles her children had built.

It is November. It is the month when we remember the dead and when we think about our own death. For all of us life is passing; it is transient. Death is inevitable. We have here no lasting city. The thought of our mortality at this winter time gives us an opportunity to get things in perspective.

To get things in perspective it is helpful to ask ourselves some questions. One question we could do to ask ourselves during November is this: What will we have to leave behind us when our earthly life is over? Among the things we will definitely leave behind are the sandcastles we have built. Our sandcastles are more than the buildings we own. They are our projects, our investments, our businesses, our wealth, even our achievements. All these things may have preoccupied us in life, but they will be of little benefit to us in death.

Another question November brings is one that gets to the heart of the meaning of life. What will we take with us when our time in this world is over? The poet William Blake provides the answer: “We are put on earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.” What will endure are the relationships we have built, including our relationship with God. Relationships are the most important thing in life. It is the investment we make in relationships that we will take with us into God’s other world beyond the grave. It is love and only love that will last. When we meet the Lord face to face in death the thing he will look for is the love in our hearts.

So, “if you tend to get overly serious about your work and your responsibilities remind yourself that the most common deathbed regrets have to do with neglected relationships, not unfinished business” (The Little Book of Calm).

The Sacrament of Letting Go

Slowly she celebrated the sacrament of letting go.
First she surrendered her green,
then the orange, yellow, and red.
Finally she let go of her own brown.
Shedding her last leaf
she stood empty and silent, stripped bare.
Leaning against the winter sky,
she began her vigil of trust.

Shedding her last leaf,
she watched it journey to the ground.
She stood in silence
wearing the colours of emptiness,
her branches wondering,
how do you give shade with so much gone?

And then,
the sacrament of waiting began.
The sunrise and the sunset watched with tenderness.
Clothing her with silhouettes
they kept her hope alive.

They helped her to understand that
her vulnerability,
her dependence and need,
her emptiness, her readiness to receive,
were giving her a new kind of beauty.

Every morning and every evening they stood in silence,
and celebrated together
the sacrament of waiting.

Macrina Wiederkehr

Busyness

“What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.” Many of us are familiar with this verse from the poem by William Henry Davies. Many of us too are familiar with the experience the poet is describing. There are perhaps a number of things that prevent us from taking time to stand and stare. One in particular is rife in our culture today. It is called busyness.

Why are we so busy? The practical reason might be because we seem to have a lot of things to do. But there may be a deeper reason. Perhaps we are busy because we need to feel productive. Perhaps we keep ourselves busy because we do not feel good about ourselves when we are doing nothing. Perhaps we need to be busy because our value comes from what we do, not from who we are. Measuring ourselves by our usefulness is called utilitarianism, a philosophy that originated back at the beginning of the 19^th century and has penetrated into the very core of our being. The Anglo Saxon work ethic dominates our western culture and has a huge impact not only on the way we see ourselves, but, more importantly, on the way we feel about ourselves.

Perhaps another reason we keep ourselves busy is because we believe that we need to earn the acceptance and approval of Jesus. “Look busy! Jesus is coming!” is a voice that has influenced our religious experience. It creates a double whammy that leaves us struggling. Not only is busyness something we expect of ourselves; it is also something Jesus expects of us. This is bad religion and a terrible misunderstanding of the good news of the Gospel. Jesus’ love does not have to be earned. It is GIFT, not achievement. Who we are is much more important to Jesus than what we do. He allows us to be and to rejoice in our ways of being. This is what it means to be loved unconditionally by him. Jesus is happy for us to take time to stand and stare. Our culture may make us feel guilty doing it, but Jesus doesn’t!

My Surrender Prayer


Abba God,
I welcome everything that comes to me today.
I welcome all persons and situations,
thoughts and feelings.

I let go of my need to accumulate.
I let go of my need to be busy.
I let go of my need for approval.
I let go of my need to feel important.
I let go of my need to be in control.
I let go of my need to change others.

Abba God,
I accept your unconditional love.
Help me to recognise your presence in my life.
Amen.

My Answer

“But you, who do you say I am?” (Matt 16:15). Jesus is not interested in who we think other people say he is, people like priests and teachers and theologians and charismatics. He is only interested in who I say he is. The question of his identity is addressed personally to each one of us and it can only be answered by each of us in a personal way.

So who do I say Jesus is? For me, who is the human person who grew up in a remote village, who worked for most of his short life as a tradesman, who spent three years preaching, teaching, healing, and serving, who died a cruel death on a cross and who appeared to his followers after his death? Who do I say this man is? Peter told him that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt 16:16). Am I able and willing to make the same act of faith as Peter? ‘Jesus, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ When it comes to the question of Jesus’ identity there is no sitting on the fence, no opting out. I may delay offering an answer, but sooner or later I have to make a decision.

The question that Jesus asks each of us personally and directly is the most important question we will ever be asked. It is the question that needs to be answered by us in the silence of our own hearts. How we answer the question will have an impact on our lives. It will make a difference to how we experience the world and to the way we live. If I say, ‘Jesus, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God,’ then I am accepting that Jesus is the person who saves me from the evils that threaten me, including death. What is more, I am also accepting that the values of Jesus are the values I need to live by. To accept Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, is to accept that there are many things that he can do for me. But it is also to accept that there are things that he would like me to do for him. To accept Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, is to take possession of the relationship he has with me and to make this relationship the anchor of my life.

An Act of Trust

There is a defining moment in the life of the great Abraham who is often referred to as our Father in Faith. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. This was a huge ask for Abraham. Isaac was the child of his old age, his pride and joy, his only hope of posterity.

On the face of it, it seems cruel for God to ask Abraham to let go of his beloved son. But God needed to put Abraham to the test. It was important that the man God had chosen to be our Father in Faith would have complete trust in God. We know that Abraham responded to God’s request. He did what God invited him to do. He abandoned himself totally to God. In response God not only spared the life of Isaac. He also showered blessings in abundance on Abraham and his descendants. “I make a vow by my own name – the Lord is speaking – that I will richly bless you. Because you did this and did not keep back your only son from me, I promise that I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand along the seashore. Your descendants will conquer their enemies. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants – all because you obeyed my command” (Genesis 22:16-18).

As we go through life our faith in God is tested. Difficult and painful experiences like failure, rejection, disappointment and sickness make us wonder if God is really loving and caring. Often in the face of suffering the silence of God can be deafening. Like Abraham, we have a choice to make. We can either trust God in the hope that God will eventually bring good out of our pain or we can blame God for the distress we find ourselves in. Suffering can either draw us closer to God or make us bitter.

It is important for us to realise that God does not cause human suffering. Free will does. However, God uses our suffering to strengthen our trust. God can best work in our lives when we allow ourselves to depend on him. Self-sufficiency keeps us distant from God; surrender brings us near to God. Growth in our spiritual lives requires deeper levels of surrender and trust. Abraham was richly rewarded for his great act of surrender and trust. So will we.

A Feast in August

A number of times each year the Christian community remembers Mary, the Mother of Jesus. One of these occasions occurs on 15^th August. This celebrates what happened at the end of Mary’s earthy life. It is known as the Feast of the Assumption.

From earliest times there was a conviction among the people of God that when Mary’s life on earth came to an end her body did not experience corruption and the decay of death. In other words, when her earthly life was over, Mary was taken as she was into the glory of heaven. It is significant that Mary does not have a tomb. There is no burial place at which to venerate her.

The Feast of the Assumption proclaims Mary as our beacon of hope. Where she is now, we one day hope to be. Her destiny is our destiny; her destination is our destination. The Assumption of Mary offers us an opportunity to remember that we are a pilgrim people. We have here no lasting city. Our true homeland is in heaven. Our big thing is in the future; the best is yet to come. The truth is we will not be happy until we get to where Mary is, until we experience what Mary is experiencing, until we share fully in the life and love of God. We have been made for the enjoyment of God and our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

The Feast of the Assumption of Mary affirms that she was taken up body and soul into heaven. Her body was sacred and as she left this world it was immediately transformed into a glorified body. In the Apostles’ Creed we profess our belief in the resurrection of the body. Like Mary, our bodies will also be included in our experience of resurrection, not immediately, but eventually. For this reason it is important that we respect our bodies and take good care of them. Taking care of our bodies means a healthy diet, proper sleep and regular exercise. It means not taking risks that may harm our own bodies and the bodies of others. Taking care of our bodies also means listening to them for they often reveal what is going on inside of us, especially what is happening in our emotional life.

Reminding the young church at Corinth about the sacredness of the body this is what St Paul said: “Do you not realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you and whom you received from God? You are not your own property, then; you have been bought at a price. So use your body for the glory of God” (1Cor 6:19-20). The feast of the Assumption reminds us that Mary used her body for the glory of God. It is an invitation to us to do the same.