By Colleen O’Sullivan
On that day
the deaf shall hear the words of a book; And out of gloom and darkness, the
eyes of the blind shall see. The lowly
will ever find joy in the Lord and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
(Isaiah 29:18-19)
The Lord is
my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? (Psalm 27:1a)
As Jesus
passed by, two blind men followed him, crying out, “Son of David, have pity on
us!” When he entered the house, the
blind men approached him and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do
this?” Yes, Lord,” they said to him. Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it
be done for you according to your faith.”
And their eyes were opened. (Matthew
9:27-30a)
Piety
Wait for the Lord, his day is near.
Wait for the Lord: keep watch, take
heart.
Study
Prior to Advent 2011’s liturgical language changes,
after the Our Father, the celebrant at Mass would pray this short prayer: In your
mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in
joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. That phrase, wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, sums up Advent
for me.
We’re not always so good at waiting, however. I confess to having my Christmas tree already
set up and decorated. I’m hosting the
family Christmas dinner this year and my head is full of recipes and
logistics. A thousand siren songs
beseech us to do anything but wait in joyful hope. Get online and cyber-shop. Run to the mall and come home laden with
gifts for family and friends. Load up
your December calendar with Christmas parties, Christmas concerts and the
like. Wait? We’ve mentally, emotionally and spiritually
already skipped right over Advent.
Wait in joyful hope? Maybe it’s just the darkness of the long
winter nights, but I find many people discouraged. Perhaps your Thanksgiving dinner tableau
didn’t exactly resemble a Norman Rockwell painting, and there were tensions
among those around your table. Maybe you shudder at the recent reminders that
racism is alive and well and that there are still plenty of people who measure
a person’s worth by their skin color, ethnic origin, or religious
persuasion. I personally found utterly
appalling a story in the Washington Post
about a Moroccan TV show, “After the Beating,” where women are matter-of-factly
shown how to apply cosmetics to cover up the bruises from physical abuse
inflicted on them in their homes. There
are so many in our world who aren’t treated with respect or dignity.
Yet, I am waiting in joyful hope for the
coming of the Lord! The prophet Isaiah
promises a day when the land will be renewed and all will be lush and fruitful,
a time when we will see and hear the goodness of the Lord and understand the
glory of what we are beholding. The
powerful who use their might to make others miserable will be no more. And, last but not least, we will be so in awe
of these works wrought by God’s hand, we will bow down and adore our God.
The psalmist adds that the Lord is our light and
our salvation and, with God on our side, there is no reason to live in fear.
In the Gospel reading lies the clue to being able
to wait in joyful hope. The two blind
men have faith. They each believe with
all their heart that Jesus can heal them.
And that is what enables the Lord to restore them to wholeness. Jesus’ own family and hometown friends didn’t
have faith and Jesus could do nothing for them for that reason.
Action
Carve out some quiet time each day to wait in
joyful hope for the Lord’s coming. Give
thanks for the ways God has already taken up residence in your heart. Where you feel disheartened by the state of
your family, our country or the world, come up with one small thing you can do
to make someone else’s life better and do it.
None of us can transform the entire world, but all the little gifts of
love that we offer can and do make a
difference.
Pray with gratitude for God’s sending his Son into
the world to be one of us and to offer us redemption. The dark nights may be long at this time of
year, but Jesus is truly the Light that nothing and no one can extinguish.
Finally, pray with joyful anticipation of that day
when Christ shall return as King of Glory and redeem all of creation.
That is truly worth hoping and
waiting for!
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