“Panginoon, hanggang kailan kami’y maghihintay? Halika na, pangako mo’y tupdin mo na (Lord, up to when will we wait? Come, fulfill your promise).” These lines from an Advent song is an apt starting point for our reflections as we usher in the start of a new liturgical year.
There are two handles we can get from these lines: waiting, and the fulfillment of a promise. We add a third from the readings this Sunday, particularly the Gospel—mindful readiness.
The Gospel opens with the story of Noah and the great flood. This familiar story gives a dramatic background to waiting and readiness.
For Noah, he was waiting for the “promise” of God that there will be judgment—the good and the obedient will be blessed and rewarded, while those considered pasaway (the disobedient) will be punished. Actually, they will bring judgment upon themselves. It was a promise of justice to the righteous.
Biblical scholar Dr. Frederick Dale Burner distinguishes the warning or the call to readiness expressed in this Sunday’s Gospel. He points out that the problem of the people before the flood “is not gross sin but secular indifference—nonchalance about God.”
Taking a close and objective look at the events mentioned in today’s Gospel, one will realize these are normal day-to-day activities (eating and drinking) and not at all sinful (marrying). The call then seems to be aimed for a more spiritual or transcendent way of life—not to be indifferent and nonchalant about God’s presence in our lives. This is mindful readiness.
Notion of mindfulness
Let us take a simple example. Recall how you and your friends act in front of children. You become more mindful about your words and what you talk about.
The notion of mindfulness is present in many cultures and spiritual traditions. Perhaps the most famous of these is in Buddhism. Mindfulness is one of the eight elements in the noble path to enlightenment. From ancient wisdom, mindfulness has become a movement in psychology.
In Christian spirituality, particularly Ignatian spirituality, this leads to the awareness and acceptance of God’s love in our life. The synthesis of Ignatian spirituality is finding God in all things.
It is this constant mindfulness that allows us to be at our best state of readiness for God’s coming. Mindful readiness becomes a way of life. It is said that St. Ignatius of Loyola had a tremendous gift of sensing God’s presence in the day-to-day. He often exclaimed, “The finger of God is here.”
The Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah 7: 14 says: “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall call him Immanuel, God with us.” This is the promise of God coming and being with us.
In the New Testament, Christ himself promises: “And remember I will be with you until the end of time.” (Matthew 28: 30)
It was that promise that defined the chosen people in the Old Testament and the early Church in the New Testament. It gave individuals and communities a sense of purpose and inspired them to live a life of mission.
Special season
Advent is a special season of waiting. It is a renewal of faith in Christ’s promise that he will be with us until the end of time. Inherent in this promise is his second coming in glory, the coming of the Kingdom of God. This is the faith and hope we renew in this special season of grace.
It is a season of renewing our inspiration in life and work, rekindling our love for God—or, as Fr. Charlie Wolf, SJ, invited us to pray with for one whole day in our annual eight-day retreat years ago—to get in touch with our “naked desire for God.”
As we prepare for Christmas and wait for the great Feast of Our Lord’s Nativity and make our way to the manger, let us do so with a prayer to be given the grace for us to get in touch again with our “naked desire for God,” to overcome our “secular indifference” and “nonchalance about God.”
This Christmas is an extra special one. We wait for the fulfillment of God’s promise in the midst of our common task and challenge; it can only be done with a shared hope and dream rooted in the promise of Christ that He will come and be with us, that He will come in the midst of devastation and corruption around us.
Grace amidst tragedy
There is grace amidst tragedy if it will make us better persons and a more compassionate society. Individually, many have come to realize that they must do their share not just in relief operations, but in rebuilding lives.
In the past week alone, I have bumped into no less than seven persons wanting to do something more than a one-time relief project, but one that will be more long-term to contribute in rebuilding efforts.
There was one group, two persons actually, who want to bring Christmas to families and kids in Leyte. In the course of our discussion in a meeting five nights ago, we agreed not just to go to the community and do a gift-giving activity.
We will bring toys for the kids and basic household utensils and equipment for the families, for starters, as they embark on rehabilitating their homes. There is a difference, though, in how these things will be given. The plan is to set up a “store” where the families we will work with can “shop.” We will give them “gift certificates” they can use to shop in the store.
The group felt that it was more than giving the families displaced by Typhoon “Yolanda” the material things they need, but it was also giving them back a sense of dignity and some mastery over their life again.
Sense of dignity
One of them said: “The bricks and mortars are important and necessary, but we must not forget the heart and soul.” We must empower them, rekindle their hope and faith.
This Advent season and this coming Christmas may yet be the best we will have in recent years. We will appreciate the true meaning of the season and feast. It is a time of waiting with mindful readiness to experience the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise that Christ is really present in our midst.
We pray this Advent, “Hesus na aking kapatid, sa lupa nami’y bumalik. Iyong mukha’y ibang-iba, hindi kita nakikilala. Tulutan mo aking mata, mamulat sa katotohanan; Ikaw Poon makikilala sa taong mapagkumbaba (Jesus, my brother, come back to our land. Your face is so different, I no longer recognize you. Grant that my eyes may be opened to the truth that you, Lord, I will know in the humble and the humbled).”