We All Wait During the Advent Season
By Monsignor Michael McCarron,
St. Bede Catholic Church
Advent, that purple draped season,
lost somewhere in the middle of the
sales at the mall and the “no overt
religious display” climate of the
politically correct, is in full swing. (Had you noticed?)
For liturgical Christian churches, it is, at best, the proximate pre-
paration for Christmas. For most folks, it is a yawn. Unfortunately,
it is also an essential part of the Christian faith, and human spirit.
Advent is a season that focuses on waiting. Waiting for the celebration
of Christmas. Waiting for the return of Jesus in glory to bring history
to a close. Waiting for the promise of life without death or dying,
crying out or pain, to be at last manifest in the right now, not simply
in the “later” of human history.
However, waiting is not a comfortable place for most in our society
to be. We spend our lives and energies, even our money, trying to
bring things to a close, to “hurry things up”. We wait in lines at the
stores and hate it. We wait in traffic and loathe it. We are not people
who wait well, and so we wear Advent poorly.
I would submit that, in fact, this is a season that is core to all of us.
All of us wait for something, for someone. We await the perfect
relationship, the proper amount of attention from our spouse, the
right career opportunity, the house on the river. Children wait to
grow up to be understood by adults. Adults wait to be respected
by the young.
Every person who is reading these words is waiting for something
or someone, and what you are waiting for is making you who you
are and who you shall be.
Advent simply announces this truth. All people are waiting and
they are being formed by that fact. Advent is the season that
simply asks the question, “Who is your waiting for?” So much of
our waiting is caught up in things that simply either are not all
that important, or simply do not last.
As the result, the quality of life that flows from such anticipation
is weak at best. What would come of life if we started waiting,
really waiting for the things that matter. Christians say that since
the time of the first coming of Christ in history some 2001 years ago,
we are made a royal people, princes and princesses all. (That’s the
reason for all the royal purple by the way.)
Advent is the time to make sure we remember that and renew our
commitment to live as such. It is not always easy to remember that
God views us all as royalty. Advent calls us to remember the dignity
that humanity is given when God becomes human.
And so, we wait well when we long for peace enough to offer forgive-
ness to those who do not deserve it. We wait properly when we yearn
for an end to human suffering enough to alleviate it. We wait for the
coming of Christ at history’s end by waiting for what is essential, and
doing so with hope.
Christians long to “Adventize” the world. We are all waiting for
something or someone. What it is will determine who we are, and
what our world will become. For those anticipating Jesus, the world
is fraught with wonder, and Advent is filled with possibility.
Monsignor Michael McCarron is pastor or Saint Bede Catholic Church in
St. Bede’s Christmas & New Year’s Mass Schedule – 2010
Friday, December 24
– Saint Bede Catholic Church
– Catholic Campus Ministry Chapel
– Parish Center
– Saint Bede Catholic Church
– Saint Bede Catholic Church
Saturday – December 25
– Saint Bede Catholic Church
– Saint Bede Catholic Church
Sunday, December 26
– Saint Bede Catholic Church
– Saint Bede Catholic Church
– Saint Bede Catholic Church
– Saint Bede Catholic Church
Friday, December 31
– Saint Bede Catholic Church
Saturday, January 1
– Saint Bede Catholic Church
St. Bede Catholic Church
3686 Ironbound Road,
Williamsburg, VA 23188, (757) 229-3631
http://www.bedeva.org/
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