Happy New Year! Liturgical new year, that is. Advent is upon us and it's time for wreaths and purple to adorn churches everywhere. Advent is a time of preparation and hope, and it's also a time of waiting. However, the waiting God calls us to in Advent is not the same waiting we often do in daily life. The waiting of Advent is not passive, but an active waiting that asks something of us.
What is active waiting? Active waiting is intentional. It's purposeful. It's disciplined. It's a waiting that hopes for the end, but in the meantime it is an experience of growth and learning. Active waiting is not impatient. It is not the kid who wakes up every morning asking if it is Christmas yet and if it's time to open presents. But it is also not the mindless waiting of someone watching the commercials waiting for the game to come back on.
Advent is a time of active waiting. We are to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ, especially at the end of time. Advent isn't just a four weekend space right before Christmas; the Church gives us this time of Advent because we need it. We need to grow in our own souls so that we are ready to accept the gift of Christ's incarnation. We need this time of preparation every year when we remind ourselves of the story of Christ's first coming to open our hearts back up to God. It is a time we are called to examine our prayer life and dig the gunk out of our souls.
I think that the active waiting of Advent is especially challenging for us today. We live in a culture that is so fast paced, that waiting seems like a waste of time. It seems like waiting is just something we have to get through to meet our desired goal. We have forgotten the benefits a good wait can do for us.
I'll tell a sort of story to explain. The waiting of Advent is a lot like the waiting of engagement, which is the big waiting room of life Patrick and I are currently sitting in. Engagement is really easy to see as an inconvenience, and something that should be made as short as possible. It's usually seen as a time that is used to check all the boxes on a to-do list while you hurry to get right to the fun part. However, engagement in the Church is called a liminal experience. It's an experience. It's set apart as a specific time in life. That's because engagement is a time for the couple to learn more about each other and grow in faith together before they set off on a life long commitment. It's supposed to be intentional. That's why Patrick and I will be engaged for more than two years before we get married. We want to give ourselves enough time to well, graduate honestly, but to also talk to each other about each other before we start living in the same house. A lot of our friends thought we were nuts at first for waiting so long, but I'll be honest, the marriage prep is so much fun. We have time to enjoy doing all the things that we could easily make a list that has to be done instead of experienced. We get to do small pieces of it and then talk about and work on everything that we've learned before we move on to something new. Are we looking forward to the actual wedding? Yes, of course, we'd be crazy not to, but we are not (at least trying not to) just throwing our engagement away and chalking it up to an obstacle and a task before marriage. Actually, we love engagement so much that we're doing a betrothal ceremony this summer. Yeah, you read that right. Betrothal. I think it's the coolest thing ever. It's this obscure ceremony in the Church where the engagement ring gets blessed and we exchange vow-like promises to actually marry each other and to treat each other with the love and respect due to a spouse. It'll be awesome. I'll blog all about it later. Anyway, my point is, Advent is like the liturgical form of engagement. We have to wait for something really exciting like Christmas or a wedding, but the time before is not a task, it's an experience. It's a time we should use to get to know the one we love better, Christ, and to work on things that hurt our relationship with Him, so that we can receive Him again at Christmas.
Advent is also a time to remember who we are. It is a time that reminds us we are not the savior. The Savior is Jesus Christ, and we are supposed to cooperate with His plan for salvation. A priest reminded me of that recently in a homily and it really touched my heart. How often do we want to save other people from whatever is hurting them? How often do we try to play the Savior, when we should really be asking the Savior, "How do you want to use me?" I think I do that all too often. So Advent is a great reminder for me that I cannot bear the world on my shoulders, and I don't have to because Jesus did that. He nailed our sins to the cross, and that is why He came to us as a helpless baby. No one expected the King of everything to be born from a nobody people in a vast kingdom, in a nowhere town in the middle of the nobody people, to a woman on the margins of this nowhere place in this nobody people in the middle of a stable where animals ate and lived, but He did. I don't know how Jesus plans to save everyone, it is probably in a way that I don't expect, so Advent reminds me that I need to let the King work through me and not the other way around.
My family has a really beautiful tradition to remind us of this, and I think this tradition is part of why Advent is one of my favorite liturgical seasons. My family has an Advent calendar, and every day on that Advent calendar another couple or child from our family is listed for the day. The whole family prays for that person on their day. For me, it is a great time to give thanks for each member of my family and the blessing they are to me, but it is also a time for me to ask God to help them in their known and unknown needs. I offer my family to God every day, one or two members at a time, until we arrive at Christmas. It reminds me that I am not going to be the one to save my family, but that God will be there for them, and He will use me in ways I do not expect, or maybe I don't even realize. All God asks is that we be willing to participate in His plan, even if we are not privy to it. The Advent calendar also helps me to actively wait. Each day of Advent is important, because each day belongs to someone I love, which makes it pretty hard to throw the day away in favor of the good stuff coming at Christmas. The Advent calendar is not a Christmas countdown, it's more like a count up. A purposeful counting. One that gets me ready for Christmas, but one that I can also enjoy in its moment.
Advent is a time when we are asked to humble ourselves and turn to God. It is a time of great anticipation, but also a time for us to focus on becoming holier in ourselves. We are asked to wait, but not statically. We are asked to wait actively by using the season of Advent as an intense four weeks of prayer where we let God be the Savior, just like He planned it. So, happy Advent everyone, and may your active waiting be filled with the joy and hope of Christ.
What is active waiting? Active waiting is intentional. It's purposeful. It's disciplined. It's a waiting that hopes for the end, but in the meantime it is an experience of growth and learning. Active waiting is not impatient. It is not the kid who wakes up every morning asking if it is Christmas yet and if it's time to open presents. But it is also not the mindless waiting of someone watching the commercials waiting for the game to come back on.
Advent is a time of active waiting. We are to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ, especially at the end of time. Advent isn't just a four weekend space right before Christmas; the Church gives us this time of Advent because we need it. We need to grow in our own souls so that we are ready to accept the gift of Christ's incarnation. We need this time of preparation every year when we remind ourselves of the story of Christ's first coming to open our hearts back up to God. It is a time we are called to examine our prayer life and dig the gunk out of our souls.
I think that the active waiting of Advent is especially challenging for us today. We live in a culture that is so fast paced, that waiting seems like a waste of time. It seems like waiting is just something we have to get through to meet our desired goal. We have forgotten the benefits a good wait can do for us.
I'll tell a sort of story to explain. The waiting of Advent is a lot like the waiting of engagement, which is the big waiting room of life Patrick and I are currently sitting in. Engagement is really easy to see as an inconvenience, and something that should be made as short as possible. It's usually seen as a time that is used to check all the boxes on a to-do list while you hurry to get right to the fun part. However, engagement in the Church is called a liminal experience. It's an experience. It's set apart as a specific time in life. That's because engagement is a time for the couple to learn more about each other and grow in faith together before they set off on a life long commitment. It's supposed to be intentional. That's why Patrick and I will be engaged for more than two years before we get married. We want to give ourselves enough time to well, graduate honestly, but to also talk to each other about each other before we start living in the same house. A lot of our friends thought we were nuts at first for waiting so long, but I'll be honest, the marriage prep is so much fun. We have time to enjoy doing all the things that we could easily make a list that has to be done instead of experienced. We get to do small pieces of it and then talk about and work on everything that we've learned before we move on to something new. Are we looking forward to the actual wedding? Yes, of course, we'd be crazy not to, but we are not (at least trying not to) just throwing our engagement away and chalking it up to an obstacle and a task before marriage. Actually, we love engagement so much that we're doing a betrothal ceremony this summer. Yeah, you read that right. Betrothal. I think it's the coolest thing ever. It's this obscure ceremony in the Church where the engagement ring gets blessed and we exchange vow-like promises to actually marry each other and to treat each other with the love and respect due to a spouse. It'll be awesome. I'll blog all about it later. Anyway, my point is, Advent is like the liturgical form of engagement. We have to wait for something really exciting like Christmas or a wedding, but the time before is not a task, it's an experience. It's a time we should use to get to know the one we love better, Christ, and to work on things that hurt our relationship with Him, so that we can receive Him again at Christmas.
Advent is also a time to remember who we are. It is a time that reminds us we are not the savior. The Savior is Jesus Christ, and we are supposed to cooperate with His plan for salvation. A priest reminded me of that recently in a homily and it really touched my heart. How often do we want to save other people from whatever is hurting them? How often do we try to play the Savior, when we should really be asking the Savior, "How do you want to use me?" I think I do that all too often. So Advent is a great reminder for me that I cannot bear the world on my shoulders, and I don't have to because Jesus did that. He nailed our sins to the cross, and that is why He came to us as a helpless baby. No one expected the King of everything to be born from a nobody people in a vast kingdom, in a nowhere town in the middle of the nobody people, to a woman on the margins of this nowhere place in this nobody people in the middle of a stable where animals ate and lived, but He did. I don't know how Jesus plans to save everyone, it is probably in a way that I don't expect, so Advent reminds me that I need to let the King work through me and not the other way around.
My family has a really beautiful tradition to remind us of this, and I think this tradition is part of why Advent is one of my favorite liturgical seasons. My family has an Advent calendar, and every day on that Advent calendar another couple or child from our family is listed for the day. The whole family prays for that person on their day. For me, it is a great time to give thanks for each member of my family and the blessing they are to me, but it is also a time for me to ask God to help them in their known and unknown needs. I offer my family to God every day, one or two members at a time, until we arrive at Christmas. It reminds me that I am not going to be the one to save my family, but that God will be there for them, and He will use me in ways I do not expect, or maybe I don't even realize. All God asks is that we be willing to participate in His plan, even if we are not privy to it. The Advent calendar also helps me to actively wait. Each day of Advent is important, because each day belongs to someone I love, which makes it pretty hard to throw the day away in favor of the good stuff coming at Christmas. The Advent calendar is not a Christmas countdown, it's more like a count up. A purposeful counting. One that gets me ready for Christmas, but one that I can also enjoy in its moment.
Advent is a time when we are asked to humble ourselves and turn to God. It is a time of great anticipation, but also a time for us to focus on becoming holier in ourselves. We are asked to wait, but not statically. We are asked to wait actively by using the season of Advent as an intense four weeks of prayer where we let God be the Savior, just like He planned it. So, happy Advent everyone, and may your active waiting be filled with the joy and hope of Christ.
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