1st Sunday of Advent: Waiting Intently for the Lord

12-03-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Waiting is part of everyday life. We wait at the doctor’s office, dentist, supper market, and restaurants, and for the traffic light to turn green, in line at gasoline stations, communion lines at the church, etc. There is hardly any place to go where people do not have to wait. People wait for their favorite season or holiday to plan to travel and visit family, take some vacations, go on a pilgrimage, and others to make a move to another place, etc.

In life, children wait till they are grownups, parents wait till young people mature, students wait till they graduate, graduates wait till their first job, and those with jobs till they receive a promotion or a salary increase. People who are hurt physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually wait for wounds to heal. The sick wait to heal, fully recover, and be back with their lives.

After Thanksgiving, people count the days till CHRISTMAS

As I write this reflection, I wait enthusiastically for Christmas. Advent is the Liturgical Season of waiting for the joyous time of the year, the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. There are three types of waiting: 1.) Passive waiting, 2.) constructive waiting, 3.) creative waiting.

1. Passive waiting is doing nothing at all, waiting lazily as the days pass. Sometimes, I fall into this waiting type when traveling home to the Philippines. Just waiting, I cannot sleep, my tailbone is killing me, and every hour of the 20 hours is agonizing.
2. Constructive waiting makes use of time by doing something while waiting. Watch the inflight movies or read a book during long hours of flying. Read magazines while waiting for an appointment with the doctor or dentist. Some people pray the rosary while waiting to fall asleep. I listen to music, play the Office of the Readings (apps), and pray the rosary when driving alone for long hours. As they say, there are millions of things to do to kill time.
3. Creative waiting is entering the moment of waiting for inspiration and allowing its meaning to come out. At the same time, being consciously aware of interior movements, the growth happening from within, with relationships with others, but most especially with God during moments of waiting. The parents of the boy Jesus found Him in the Temple amid the teachers, listening and asking questions, and all were amazed at His understanding and answers. Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house? He went down with them, came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them, and his mother kept all these things in her heart (Lk. 2:4951) This depicts creative waiting.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel to be watchful and to stay alert because we never know the day or the hour when the time will come. Fr. Herman Mueller, SVD, was a great scripture scholar and a professor of the Old Testament and biblical languages at the Divine Word School of Theology from 1978 till his death on Nov. 1, 2000. A man so devoted in his teaching and prayer. He was very zealous, diligent, and scholarly, with an unequaled passion for scriptures, an inspirational mentor and spiritual director to us seminarians. When God called him, he was waiting intently for the Lord. We all know our birthdays, but we do not know when we will face our mortality in death. When they found Fr. Herman Mueller on that faithful day, he was kneeling, with a prayer book in hand: he was gathered to his ancestors(expression of death in the Old Testament), prepared and ready.

Food for thought: Depending on how man lives, he may die old at 40 or young at 80.