Watching, Waiting, Anticipating

Homily for the 1st Sunday of Advent
30 November 2014

          Anticipation:

        It’s the feeling that a child has in wanting to open his presents on Christmas day.

        It’s the feeling that a young couple has going on their first date.

        It’s the feeling that a bride and groom share on their wedding day, imaging a lifetime spent together.

        It’s the feeling that a young woman has as she weds herself to Christ as a member of a religious community.

        It’s the feeling that a young man has as he promises celibacy and obedience as an ordained minister of the Church.

        We have all experienced anticipation in our lives. It’s the feeling of a good anxiety that we have, knowing that something is coming, and we become excited for the moment.

        That’s what this season of Advent should be for the Christian: A season of joyous anticipation.

        Unfortunately, we have lost that feeling of anticipation in our society, which has intruded into the life of faith, including that of the Christian. Our society rushes from one event to the next, preparing for the next big (or even small) holiday. How many of us already have the house trimmed to the rafters for Christmas, even though we’re still digesting the food from Thanksgiving? How much has our society rushed through Thanksgiving when Christmas items are put out in the stores before Halloween?

        Joan Jett, the rock guitarist and singer from my youth, is to have once said, “Nobody knows what anticipation is anymore. Everything is so immediate.”

        And she’s right.

        And that includes the celebration of our life of faith.

        Many of us cannot wait for Mass to move on. “C’mon, Father, just finish the homily, gimme Communion, and let’s get outta here.”

        What about the anticipation of encountering our God in Word and in Sacrament? What about the anticipation of gathering with our brothers and sisters in worship? What about the anticipation that this Mass represents? If we have a hard time with our worship in the here-and-now, our eternity will be hell.

        We have allowed our societal influences to sway us away from the excitement that comes with anticipation. We have allowed ourselves to forget what it means and how it feels to watch and wait.

        In our Gospel for this weekend, Jesus reminds us to watch for His return. We are to remain vigilant in our anticipation of His coming. We are to be alert. We are to remain ready.

        Yet we watch for the wrong things, and we anticipate the wrong events. We’ll spend hours on Sunday watching sports, but struggle to spend one hour with our Lord in prayer. We’ll anticipate the celebration of Christmas, but on December 26^th, we pack away the tree because we’ve been celebrating Christmas since October – without really anticipating anything except, “Thank God that’s over!”

        My brothers and sisters, Advent is about watching; it’s about waiting; it’s about anticipation. Advent is that yearly reminder that we must be CONSTANTLY re-orienting our lives, our minds and our hearts to Christ. We must CONSTANTLY be watching and waiting for His return. We must CONSTANTLY be anticipating – with joy! – the end of this world.

        Advent – or these “Pre-Christmas Days” – should not be filled with the anxiety to make everything perfect. Advent should be that time in which we slow down, making sure that we’re able to watch and wait, anticipating the return of our Lord to the Earth. Advent is that period in which we learn how to re-orient our lives to Christ’s.

        Henri Nouwen, the great spiritual author of the Twentieth Century, reminds us, “Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about Him for whom we are waiting.” Our society’s problem is that we don’t want to wait, we don’t want to listen, we don’t want to learn.

        Watching, waiting, anticipating all take a focus and skill that our society has lost over the years. (Remember: Everything is immediate.) This, then, becomes the season in which we learn not only how to watch and wait, but it becomes that time in which we learn more about Christ, Himself. We do this by spending time with Him. We do this by not becoming anxious about the wrong things in life, but anticipating the coming of Him who makes everything in life right.

        The challenge of the Advent season, then, is to learn how to slow down, to watch and wait, to anticipate. The challenge for us is to learn more “about Him for whom we are waiting.” The challenge for our society is to re-orient itself to the Heart of Christ, and to not become anxious about the next thing coming.

        Our job is to watch.

        Our job is to wait.

        Our job is to anticipate.

        Our job is to simply “be” with the Lord, to know about Him, and to know HIM.

        Use this Advent season to challenge yourself – as I challenge myself – to draw closer to our Lord, so that when He comes in His glory, He may find us people watching and waiting in prayer, not anxious about what is to come, but anticipating with joy the fulfillment of the promises He has given to us.

        Let us take heed of a few more words of Henri Nouwen:

“Be alert, be alert, so that you will be able to recognize your Lord in your husband, your wife, your parents, your children, your friends, your teachers, but also in all that you read in the daily newspapers. The Lord is coming, always coming. Be alert to His coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize Him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord . . .

I hope and pray that Advent will . . . be filled with . . . the Spirit of Him who invites us to listen carefully to the sounds of the New Earth that are manifesting themselves in the midst of the old.”

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Enjoy the journey . . .