SPIRITUALITY OF WAITING
One day, I had to travel across the city on a weekday during the morning rush hour to preside at a Eucharistic celebration. The internet estimated that my journey would take about an hour and a half, but I left a little bit late. As I sat anxiously in the train and wishing to push to run faster, I began to have a look at the people who sat around me: a few were trying to catch up with their make up, some were catching up with their breakfast, others were catching up with the news, and still others either fidgeting with an electronic toy (like the mobile phone or ipad), or listening to music. And suddenly an insight came to me, as if a voice from heaven. It said, “Why are you rushing all the time trying to catch up with something? Do you really know what you are trying to catch up with? Why don’t you just wait so that I can catch up with you?”
It is not difficult for me to notice that I am becoming a victim of the contemporary culture. We live in an ‘instant society’ and we have no time to wait. The modern developments offer us an array of instant solutions to daily problems. In fact, development itself is often measured in terms of how fast one can have access to the amenities of daily life. We have instant coffee and tea. We have ‘fast foods’. We have instant communication. A wealth of information is only a click away. Relationships with even strangers develop instantly thanks to the mobile phones and social network websites. We measure time in units of nanoseconds. Things move so fast that there is no time to wait. Patience and waiting are becoming bygone virtues.
In the liturgical year, we are in the third Sunday of Advent. Advent is a time of waiting. It is a season of waiting for the coming of the Lord. Coming of the Lord could be understood at least in three ways: The Lord came in the form of a human babe two thousand years ago; The Lord comes even today in the Word and Sacrament; The Lord will come at the end of times. In the season of Advent – as Mother Nature goes to hibernation in the Northern hemisphere – the church invites us to become aware of the fact that as pilgrims on the face of the earth we are all waiting!
As we recall the first coming of Jesus in the celebration of Christmas, the church invites us to become aware that we are waiting for the Second Coming. I would like to look at the Second Coming as the fulfilment of the purpose of human life here on earth – a purpose that is beyond even our earthy dreams. It is the fulfilment of the purpose of the evolutionary process. It is reaching the culmination point – the Omega point – of our life. It is becoming one with God, the Alpha of our existence. And as we wait for this fulfilment, the church invites us to draw strength from the Lord who comes in the Word and Eucharist. It invites us to recognize the God who is in our midst. Interestingly, in the gospel text of today (Mt 11:2-11) Jesus invites the disciples of John the Baptist to recognize the God who is already here. Jesus challenges them: do you not notice the signs of the kingdom that is already here?
Perhaps, if our earthly life is just a running around trying to catch up with deadlines and appointments, then we might forget these truths. We might fail to notice the God who is already in our midst. When we forget the ultimate concerns of our life, then our busy life could become merely chasing butterflies, or racing for the gold at the end of the rainbow. This season of advent invites us to stop and gaze at the rainbow with hope! Particularly for those of us who are retired and enjoying the later years of our life, this stage is a privileged moment of being able to wait patiently! The later years of life might be considered a prolonged season of advent. It is not only a time to evaluate the journey that our life has been, but also a time to hope for the journey that will be.
In the early Christian community, since the believers saw the coming of Christ as being very immanent, the sense of waiting was very tangible. In the 2nd reading of today from the Letter of
St James, we hear: “Be patient, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. Think of a farmer; how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains!” (James 5:7). In this text, St James compares our waiting to the waiting of the farmer. Elsewhere, St Paul would tell us that actually we are waiting with the whole of creation for the day of fulfilment. In his Letter to the Romans (Rom 8:18-19) we read: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God….”
What does a spirituality of waiting mean for us in our daily life?
1. Surely waiting does not imply a negative attitude of just giving up (and simply sitting there). If you are an able-bodied person it implies continuing to enhance God’s creation and contributing to human flourishing through meaningful work of any kind. And if you are in a condition that does not allow physical activity then you can edify others through your kind words and thoughts. In his Letter to the Thessalonians (2 Thes 3:10-13),St Paul tells us to go on quietly working and earning the food that we eat, even as we wait for the coming of the Lord. “Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right,” he tells us. St Peter writes to his Christians (2Pet 3:11-12): while waiting for the coming of the day of God, lead lives of holiness and godliness.
2. At whatever stage of life we are in, and in whatever we are engaged in, we can all add a little dose of ‘mindfulness’ to our lives. The term ‘mindfulness’ is increasingly being used today by people who claim to be spiritual without being religious. Sometimes, this term refers more precisely to some Eastern techniques of meditation. We can also substitute it with another popular term, ‘awareness’. In the Christian context, I would prefer to use the expression, ‘contemplative practice’. This can refer to fixed moments of meditation and contemplation on a daily basis. It can also refer to an attitude of continued prayer, by raising our mind to God throughout the day. It is simply being in the awareness that we are constantly in the presence of God. I see this being implied in the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mathew (Mt 24:42-43): “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.”
So, even as I have to rush to catch up with deadlines I wish I can become more aware of what I am doing. Even as I anxiously wait at the traffic-jams, wanting to push all the cars away, I wish I could just quieten myself and become aware that I am in the presence of God. And I hope these acts of ‘waiting’ will help me recognize the God who is already here, as I wait for the one who is yet to come. In this way, I will to allow God to catch up with me.
Fr. Franco Pereira, S.D.B.