Reflection for the Second Sunday of Advent

I love Advent. But I also find it to be one of the most frustrating seasons of the entire church year. Each Advent, I make a promise to myself to create quieter spaces in my life for prayer and reflection on the Word so that I can be more attentive to Christ. But that never seems to happen. Like you, a thousand things all compete for my time and attention, and, on some days, the “quiet expectancy” and “joyful hope” that characterize this season are nowhere to be found. I imagine the same is true for you. But beyond this, Advent frustrates me because as I look for the Lord to come, He doesn’t seem to arrive, at least not in the way I want Him to, that is.

As I was mulling these things over in prayer this week, I was struck by the words of St. Paul in our second reading, “…that by endurance and encouragement we might have hope…” Which then got me thinking, perhaps the Lord is trying to redirect my attention to other places where I must look for Him, in the ordinary things of life where endurance and encouragement are needed. Which opened up another question for me, who is waiting for whom in Advent? Am I waiting for the Christ or is He really waiting for me?

If one thing is certain throughout the whole of salvation history – from the days of Abraham to this gathering of the Church in prayer – it is this: God rarely arrives in ways that we expect. God gives Himself to us, not in power and glory, but in something as common as an infant born in obscurity. He delivers on a promise by showing us that the reason we seem to get the “same old” is because we’re the “same old.” But through the voice of John the Baptist, God calls me – and you too – to be made new again through repentance, by the change of heart that leads us away from those things which diminish us as the People of God and to turn again to Him, who alone completes us and sets us free. God arrives in the most awesome way of all – in something as ordinary as bread and wine, in the people who need us to serve them, and in all the ordinary things that teach us generosity in giving, gratitude in receiving, and charity – love – in all things.

And so, I wonder; who is waiting for whom in Advent? If the truth be told, God has arrived and He delivers on the promise. Now, He is waiting for us. We just need to humbly acknowledge that we get the “same old” because we’re the same old. But that is where repentance begins. It invites us to clear the debris out of our lives that impedes us from living as God desires us to live – fully, freely, and with hope.

Advent is about looking for Christ with better eyes, but it is also about finding Him where He is asking us to see Him.