I’m actually writing this reflection waiting for anyone to come to Reconciliation or Confession. The wait is a quiet one before the Blessed Sacrament with just a few people coming to pray. Waiting can be a lonely experience if you’re expecting a particular outcome and you are focused on that outcome which never quite materializes. In our waiting we sometimes make demands in God: finding the right friend or partner; healing from illness; successful career; happiness. The list is endless.

Advent teaches us to wait simply being aware of God’s presence and offering our prayers and desires not as expectation to be fulfilled but as a way of talking with God, being open and vulnerable. But we must listen for God’s response and surrender to it. Letting go of our own will is what can possibly happen in the waiting.

The people were waiting for the messiah and He came but not as they expected. Being born in a smelly cave in obscurity, no one being aware except shepherds, the lowliest people at the time. They were actually despised as being outsiders. The people waited centuries for this??? We forget how radical the birth of Christ was and how it perplexed so many. We don’t even know the date, the year, the month, even the actual place of His birth.

And so we continue to wait for Christ to enter our lives in ways we don’t expect. Let’s be surprised and open as we wait. Speak our prayers and needs but let them go. Listen to God speaking to us answers we may not expect or want. So be it.

I’m waiting here for people. If they show… great. If not, I’ve written this reflection, which is just fine.

Peace. Fr. Frank