Waiting!

WITH this Sunday we begin the second cycle of the liturgical year. First we go through the four Sundays of Advent, and from there we proceed to the Christmas and Easter celebrations, until we take up again the series of the 34 Sundays of ordinary time.

After these have been completed, we are ready to start again with a new liturgical year. Fifty-two Sundays in all, each transmitting essentially the one and same message of salvation, but with different emphases corresponding to the different seasons, and different approaches which are characteristic of each of the four evangelists.

The central point that focuses our reflection today is that of 'waiting'. Throughout our life we spend so much time waiting. As children we waited for the time when we would become mature enough to take care of ourselves and make our own choices. After sitting for an examination we eagerly wait for the results. And there are times when we have to wait in a queue before it is our turn to in served at a bank or in a shop, or in a dentist's waiting room, or before our bus arrives.

Waiting is often accompanied by boredom and impatience. The time always seems long, especially on a busy day. If waiting is often a boring experience, it is often followed by 'good news' and we say to ourselves that all that waiting was after all quite worthwhile.

In today's Gospel Our Lord makes use of our 'waiting' experience to prepare us for something that is worth waiting for more than anything else in our lifetime: the acceptance of Christ in our lives, his coming to us in the Eucharist and our final meeting with him at the moment of death.

Today we see how Jesus sets the right background for his audience. Many among them were familiar enough with the prophecies which had foretold the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70, and Jesus was certainly also referring to this when he said that "this generation will not pass away before all these things will have taken place". It is possible that Jesus was also referring here to the end of the world and so to his final 'advent'.

Against this background the Church invites us in its liturgy today to think about the coming of Jesus at Christmas, to help us develop a sense of 'expectation', of waiting with joy for something great to happen. In the Advent liturgy all Christians are urged to rejoice at Our Lord's coming at Christmas. Historically, Jesus has come to our world only once, but liturgically and spiritually he is there, ready to come again to us so long as we make room for him and are prepared to receive him and to allow him to be 'born' in us through faith and love.

If we look a little bit around us, we cannot help discovering that the entire world is awaiting again the coming of Christ, not the one at Christmas, but the one in today's world: a world which has become so materialistic, that it is gradually discovering that it has no longer any use for the salvation that Christ is offering us, but is far more interested in matter than in spirit, more eager for the immediate satisfactions of the body than for the inner joys of the soul, more satisfied by what it can get here and now than by the happiness that is in store for us thanks to the salvation brought to us by a Baby in a manger.

This is then the promise of salvation that was announced to us on that very first Christmas day. Our Christian faith will give us the courage to 'wait', provided we are prepared to make room for him in our lives.