This time of year is a transitional period. Last week was Thanksgiving, where we practice gratitude for everything that we’ve been blessed with. Next week is the start of Advent, the season of waiting to celebrate the birth of Christ. And this week is, well, the week that we wait, to wait for Christmas. However, it’s difficult not to notice how hard it is to be patient in this season. I mean, the day immediately following thanksgiving, Black Friday, is the day we all collectively lose our minds in a rush to buy all of the Christmas gifts we need, the day after we were just thankful for what we already had. Half of stores I walked into in September already had Christmas items out, even before Halloween. And we all say, “Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year!” In a time where Amazon Prime is gospel, I think its a symptom of living in a culture of impatiences and the need for instant gratification. It’s also the time of year where we spend a lot of time we family, and get questions like “when are you getting married?” “When are you having kids?” “Are you thinking of buying a house soon?” “Have you gotten that promotion yet?” And other questions that remind us of what we don’t have yet, haven’t done yet, and are still praying for, wishing for, and waiting for. Instead of feeling gratitude for the things we already have, gratitude for the season of life we find ourselves in, we spend so much time wishing it was different.
It’s unfortunate that we find waiting so uncomfortable, as, if you really think about it, most of life is waiting. Waiting for red lights to turn green, waiting in the doctors office or, God forbid, the DMV, waiting for coffee to brew, or, if you’re me, waiting for your Starbucks order to be ready.
Despite our dislike of waiting, God seems quite content to make us do it anyway. I mean, after Jesus was crucified, there was a 3 day period before he appeared again to his disciples in his resurrected form. Three days doesn’t seem like a long time to wait, but it surely felt like an eternity for the apostles, who were grieving and anxious, confused, even. They believed Jesus was the son of God and yet, they had watched him die with their own eyes, bathed and wrapped his body, anointed it with oil, and placed it in a tomb. Maybe, after he was crucified, they expected that, at any moment, he would awake again and get off the cross. I wonder how long they waited before they realized that, yes, he was really dead. I wonder if in those 3 days they started to question whether or not Jesus’s promise to them was really true. The only thing they could really do was wait and trust God.
Another example is Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha. Now Martha had called on Jesus to heal Lazarus when he was sick, but by the time he arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already been dead for four days. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Even though she had surely prayed and prayed for him to be healed, only for her brother to die, she still trusted God, saying ‘whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” And we know how the story goes from there.
What these two stories have in common is that they show people who were made to wait on God, whose prayers went unanswered until God decided to give them more than they could have even expected. And while the waiting proves to be well worth it, it doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable. In the end, though, their waiting and trusting is what draws them closer to God, more so than if they never did in the first place. Sometimes, like them, God makes us wait on big things. For me, it’s waiting to hear back about important job interviews, waiting to know what I will do after graduation, where I’m going to live, and what the next chapter holds. I won’t lie, it’s a very anxious time. Some of you are in the same place right now, feeing like you’re sitting in God’s waiting room, waiting for God to tell you one thing or another. You’re waiting and you don’t know how much longer you can hold out. You feel like giving up and walking away from your dreams. You wonder if prayer is a waste of time because God has not answered yet. Maybe you’ve been waiting for months or years already and you feel hopeless. You may be waiting on God right now. The only advice I have is don’t panic or despair. The best way to wait for tomorrow is just to do your best today.
It isn’t that waiting is easy or enjoyable. Often it is very difficult. In the end we can take comfort in the fact that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. So as you wait on the Lord, be strong and take heart, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstance for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Last week, we gathered in gratitude around the table to give thanks. Today we are invited to gather around the table for a similar reason, to give thanks to god for our daily bread, to join in communion and love with one another, and do as Christ commands us, take this all of you and eat.
Our Lady of Light 