Advent is a season of waiting. We’ve heard it so often before, but it may be helpful to spend some time thinking about what it means.
It is an especially relevant topic because in this day and age, waiting is fast becoming a lost art.
Because we’ve grown accustomed to everything just being a click away, we are becoming increasingly impatient.
Our companion for this recollection is one of the key figures of the season (though not one of the most popular): John the Baptist, the cousin of our Lord who was born to be our Lord’s forerunner, to prepare the way for him.
John the Baptist is an icon of waiting. All his life he has waited for the Lord. For this reason, he can teach us some valuable lessons about waiting.
For this recollection, we will reflect and pray over three important moments in the life of the Baptist, which span his entire lifetime: The Visitation (before he was even born), the Baptism of Jesus (when he was at the height of his prophetic career), and his imprisonment (right before his death).
These three moments in the Baptist’s life illustrate for us three different kinds of waiting. They also offer us three faces of God, three Advent graces, and three Advent invitations.
As we go through each moment, the question to ask yourself is:
“Given the place you find yourself in this Advent, which type of waiting, which face of God, which grace, and which invitation is most suitable for you?”