We are very familiar with the concept of waiting when it comes to Advent…we know we are supposed to be anticipating the birth of Jesus and preparing for his re-birth in our lives…but what happens if we turn that around…what if we look at Advent as a time of Jesus waiting for me…waiting for me to give up my preoccupations, my worries, my unnecessary anxieties…how would this “turn-around” change my approach to Advent this year?
Jesus is a patient wait-er ..? Jesus as servant longs to be servant to me…waiting to fulfill my every need…if I would only allow him to be that in my life….or is it that I need to be in such control that the thought of Jesus waiting upon me seems so foreign? Allowing Jesus to wait on me would be to admit that I am in need of something I cannot provide for myself…I open myself up in vulnerability to the infant vulnerable one….I open my door to the One waiting at my door…knocking, eager to be invited into my crowded life….Can the call to advent be really a call to simply BE…to revel in the knowledge that my God is waiting for me to recognize his presence, to accept his love for me, to say “yes” to the miracle of rebirth, to speak his name with courage, to tell his story, to follow in true discipleship.
God is waiting for me to become as simple as the shepherds, as wise as the magi, as brave as Joseph, as open as Mary…God gives me this time each year to become the best I can be….and waits year after year for me to wake up and see the star…and then to follow it…
As this new Advent season begins, I ask for the grace to respond to all that the Lord calls me to be. May I take more precious time to be present to my God who waits for me with open arms!
- Sister Marie Paul Grech
