Advent

Advent: A Time to Trust in God’s Timetable!
We can’t seem to run fast enough to do all of the things that we would like to do or are expected to do. Yet, the Season of Advent offers us the blessed opportunity to stop running and to look up to heaven, not being ashamed to admit to God that we cannot do everything on our own. And it is during this “break in the action”, that we come to recognize how beautiful it is to wait for Him, for His love, for His assistance, and for His peace to enter more deeply into our lives. And we strive to wait like Biblical figures such as Abraham who, in their great patience, hope burned deeply in their hearts. Yet to stop running and to wait in hope is more difficult than it sounds, for to stop in this way and to look up for Christ means that we have to be willing to put ourselves onto God’s very timetable rather than remain on our own. Yet, how hard it is to trust in God’s timetable when we are a people today who walk faster, eat more quickly, and speak more rapidly than our parents and grandparents. How frustrating it is to wait in line at the store. So often today it is all about instant satisfaction. Yet God’s timetable does not work that way. To have the patience required to wait for the Lord in His timetable means that we have to come to the humble realization that in the spiritual life, we may not always be ready for what God wants to give us or prepared for what He wants to accomplish in us. Maybe God delays in giving us what we want, when we want it, because He wants our hearts to be better prepared so as to be able to receive fully that which He wants to give us.
          Msgr. Geno Sylva