What are we looking for?
It’s the 1st Sunday of Advent (Year B). What are we watching for? What are we looking for?
Of course, in Advent, we look forward to the coming of the Son of Man. We watch for signs that he will come in glory. We watch for a growing tribulation and persecution. We watch for the stars to fall from the sky, the powers to be shaken, and the angels to gather the elect from all the world. It is wise to watch for these things.
We have enjoyed many years of peace, and that has made us weak. Most of us have not experienced persecution, except perhaps a few who came here from other places where Christians are persecuted, or those who experienced the Cristero War through their parents and grandparents. But, for most of us, it is easy to be lazy. It will not always be so. Our Lord promises that we will have tribulation before the end. We should prepare, and especially prepare our hearts with fasting, with prayer, and by confessing our sins.
Today’s Gospel Antiphon says “Show us Lord, your love; and grant us your salvation.”
Is it the love of God that we watch and look for?
For most of us, I think that we are more like the prophet in our reading from Isaiah. We are watching for God to “rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking.” We are looking for “awesome deeds.” We hope that God will come in power and glory, and find us doing right and mindful of God in our ways.
We very often look for God’s power.
And God is powerful. No doubt.
But, are we just gawkers, looking for the sake of curiosity and gossip? Do we look for the coming of our Lord the way that people say “come, sweet meteor of death?” Or, are we looking for God’s love? Are we looking because we love? Are we crying out in love, saying “Come, Lord Jesus?”
This is how we are meant to be watching and looking – like a bride waiting for her bridegroom to arrive. Or, in the local culture, like a bridegroom standing at the front of the church, waiting for the doors to open, and reveal his bride.
This is how we should be watching. We should be watching with love, for the one we love. We should be watching like I watched for my grandparents, when they were coming to bring gifts upon their return from a vacation in Hawaii. We should be watching like I watched for my beloved to join us in Slaton. She stayed in Colorado for a few months to finish her semester, while we came ahead. Of course, I went to see her almost every weekend, just as we come to see our Lord in the Eucharist every weekend. But, I was so excited that she was coming to stay with me. That is how we look for our Lord.
Are we looking for God’s love? Scripture tells us that “God is love.” When God is fully revealed, it is God’s love that will be fully revealed.
Now, certainly, again, God is powerful. God is just. God is jealous. God is righteous. God’s wrath will be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. This is all true.
But also, God is love.
This Advent, I want to better prepare my heart. I want to have eyes to see God’s love as it is manifest in the world around me. I want to bring God’s love to others, so they can see it too. I want to worry less about politics and potential persecution and the pandemic, and look forward with greater joy to the coming of our Lord into my heart, and into our world.
