The Weight of Waiting

Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from November 27, 2005

"Jesus said to his disciples: Be watchful! Be alert! you do not know when the time will come." Mark 13:33

BLACK FRIDAY, the day after Thanksgiving, was a frenzy of shopping this year. People were waiting from 3 am for stores to open. I hear the competition for sales in some places became physical!

I hope that the Christmas rush has not already begun and that the pace does not increase with each passing week. The church counsels the opposite attitude: wait.

Waiting is difficult.

I spent Thanksgving with friends. Their ailing grandmother had been given hours to live by the hospice doctors. A few weeks earlier I had listened to her thoughts about her impending death. I summed up what I had heard by asking her; "Do you feel like a bird in a cage that cannot wait to fly away?" She smiled her self-recognition. Just as it was not easy for her to wait for the Lord, it was awkward also for her family. The Thanksgiving meal was interrupted many times by individuals slipping away to check if their grandmother was still breathing. Families like to plan. How can you plan around death? She passed away quietly that evening late.

We wait for decisions. A new parishioner had attended the RCIA program several times before he threw in his lot with us Catholics. He was also recently engaged. When I asked, "How long have you been dating?" I was not surprised to hear; "Four and a half years". Some people take their time to make choices until they are good and ready. Perhaps this makes for wisdom.

We wait in conversation. How can we ever listen to what the other has to say, if we are rushing on to give our own answers?

The Advent Wreath comes to us from Northern Europe. As we approach the winter solstice farms became soggy. Cart wheels were hung up in the barns. The women came and placed green branches on them as decorations, and as signs of hope for an eventual spring. We also need to stop spinning our wheels to slow down.

To remind us of this call to stillness we could make a household wreath and place it on the table. At least once a week we might gather around it at meal time, shutting off cell phones, videos, radios and other distractions for at least 30 minutes. After the Grace, you might read a reflection from the Advent Booklet that St Charles shares with you today.

Yet our Advent cannot remain totally passive.

Waiters in restaurants are of service. We may wait on one another. The Giving Tree tradition allows St Charles members to make the poor part of our Christmas preparation.

Let us move from frenzy to quiet, from rushing to prayer, from selfish materialism to generosity.

"Would that you might meet us doing right, that we are mindful of you in our ways." Isaiah 64:4