Learning to Wait in Joyful Hope

To wait in joyful hope is an advent prayer we pray everyday at mass after praying May Your Kingdom come when we invoke the Lords Prayer. The priest guides this response prayer, (I use here the previous English formula of the prayer: Deliver us Lord from every evil and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of Lord Jesus Christ. Waiting can be many things, but only in especially graced cases, an experience of joy. In many cases, waiting can be an experience of boredom, of impatience, of brooding. Especially when our waiting is marked by an obligation or requirement we feel had been imposed on us, waiting can be such a drudgery, like being dragged on our feet, only that we are dragged not to be moved but to stay put. When people feel they are entitled to things, they usually have little patience to wait. People who feel that encountering someone dear

to them is a real privilege, they will feel okay with waiting and they wait in joyful hope. The tone of todays psalm is one of joy: you will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation! promises the psalm taken from book of the Prophet Isaiah. The tone of the psalm is joyful expectation, an anticipation of something big coming. I can think of three ways a servants waiting on his or her Lord can be joyful. First, waiting can feel joyful and freer and more exciting, when we are acutely aware of how important the person or event we are waiting for is to us. When we are waiting for someone really important to us, for someone we feel humbled to be in the service or in the presence of, we are excited, at times even anxious that we really prepare for the coming encounter. We do not want to fumble or mess up when the person arrives. We do not wish to be late. The humbler one waits for the more important person. The higher person never waits for the servant, it is the

servant who waits for the master. And it even feels an honor to be able to do so, because we also become the first beneficiary of the grace-filled encounter. Having waited to meet the Lord, we are also given the privilege of opening the gate for the Lords encounter with others, a privilege not enjoyed by all. Second, waiting will feel joyful if we are able to respect the natural rhythm of things; when we are able to calm down and pay reverence to the way things move and grow. There are many things in this world that we cannot and ought not to controlthe life and growth of things for instance, the way events unfold, the maturing of people and of relationships. We can rush and impose a rhythm to things but many good things age naturally in time. We have to learn a basic sensitivity to Gods kairos, the rhythm of fullness and graciousness. A farmer cannot sow seeds and turn up the soil every day just to inspect whether a sprout has come out. A poker player has to learn to wait for the good combinations and wait for the

best and opportune time to deal his or her cards, we dont rush to win, we wait for a proper time. Healing inner wounds takes time and no amount of saying our apologies can rush reconciliations when people feel deeply hurt or betrayed. Many times the maturing of people in formation needs a lot of time and patience and anticipation. Finally, waiting will feel joyful when the wait-ER is able to empty oneself of set expectations on who will come and how and when s/he should come. When a person is able to actively prepare an open heart to serve as the manger of the child who is to come, then we are able to sit beside our Lady in waiting, pondering over things in her heart. Like our Lady, we learn to let be and offer a heart which is free, totally available to whatever God calls us to do when he does sound out his call at a time God wills and in a way God so desires. When we are able to wait in joyful hope, we become like empty vessels thirsting for living water, ready to be filled and to be

poured empty again to share the life-giving water to others. Free to receive, as we are free to give. God Bless!