Was it easier once upon a time? Did people in the past have more time for God? Were they more naturally attuned to what God was saying to them? Human nature changes very little down the ages. Circumstances, however, do. The technological revolution has changed things. There was a time when people had, well, more time.
People were accustomed to waiting. They had no choice. Most activity ended with the setting of the sun. People had to wait to receive news and to conduct business. There were no electronic communications, no possibility of an immediate response. People had time to think, while we are under constant pressure to react instantaneously.
We don’t make matters easier for ourselves. If we find ourselves unexpectedly with five minutes to spare, we don’t know what to do. We reach anxiously for our phones. Rather than contemplate reality, we immerse ourselves in all the nonsense of the virtual world.
We find ourselves writing a review for a pair of socks we bought online, or deleting a message from a lonely lady looking for company, or wondering whether that request for our bank details to pay a prize into our account might possibly be genuine. Endlessly scrolling. None of it is necessary, nor helpful in finding God.
Finding God, and preparing ourselves to meet Him, is exactly what we are called to do during the season of Advent. At first glance the prayers and the Scripture readings appear all too similar to the frenetic world in which we live today. The opening prayer for Advent Sunday urges us “to run forth to meet Christ”. The Old Testament reading and the Psalm are equally all about motion: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord”; “Let us go to God’s house.”
A moment’s reflection makes us appreciate, however, that the Scriptures aren’t promoting our manic modern lifestyle. Yes, a genuine encounter with God leads to action – change in ourselves, service of Him and of others. But we need to encounter Him first – and that takes time and silence and patience and generosity. All the things we find so difficult.
Israel was called to come to God’s house – but precisely because they had listened and heard God speaking in prayer and through the prophets. We are called to move towards Christ with a sense of urgency – but precisely because we have heard in the stillness of our hearts the imperative of the Gospel message and the promise of a Saviour.
In the Gospel Jesus warns against constant activity. “In Noah’s day” people were too engrossed in the daily cycle of business and socialising to read the signs of the times. They had removed God from the picture; they were unprepared for His intervention. And God will intervene to transform the world to make it more acceptable to Him.
That intervention will be destructive of all that is counter to His will in order to bring about conversion and purification. “As it was in Noah’s day, so it will be when the Son of Man comes.” We need to be prepared. “You too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
In an age of instant gratification, we assume waiting is boring. Time hangs heavy on our hands; we don’t see the point. That isn’t the kind of waiting Jesus wants. Think of the waiting we knew when we were children. The eager anticipation, the sheer excitement of a birthday, a holiday and, of course, Christmas. That’s how we should be waiting for Jesus now.
To look forward to the coming of Christ, to want to meet Him when He returns, we have to appreciate what He did for us the first time round. We have to look with love and tenderness on the Crib. We have to wonder at the fact God loves us so much that He became this small and this vulnerable. We have to encounter the overwhelming love of Christ on the Cross. He suffered all this for my sake. Someone – God – loves me this much.
We will await the coming of Christ with eager anticipation to the extent we know Him and love Him now. That means generosity. It means taking time, “wasting time with God” – which, of course, is never time wasted. It means making use of Advent. How can I deepen and extend my prayer life? Can I adore Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament? Can I get to Mass once or twice on a weekday during Advent? Can I take up some spiritual reading, especially the Scriptures?
Let’s detach ourselves from anything unhealthy, anything which prevents us recognising Jesus. Can we be faithful to meeting Jesus in the sacraments, especially in Confession and Holy Communion? And let’s do this in the company of Our Lady, who longs for us to know and love her Son. Let us prepare. Let us rediscover the value of waiting and of eager anticipation.
“Stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
This homily was preached at the Church of the Holy Ghost & St Stephen, Shepherd’s Bush, West London, on Advent Sunday 2022
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