Hope fills the heart of Advent people

By Mary Regina Morrell
Catholic Online

"Wait eagerly for the LORD, and keep to the way." Psalm 37:34a

Winters were always wild when I was growing up in Albany, New York. You knew it was around the corner when the squirrels' ears began to turn white. We had lots of squirrels in our backyard, since my mother loved to feed them. One in particular, whom she had named Clyde, was her favorite, mostly because he had lost an eye in some battle and she felt sorry for him. But also, because he had a voracious appetite for the nuts he learned to take from her hand.

There's just something about mothers always wanted to feed someone!

One chilly, sunny morning, long after Clyde's ears had turned white, I was sitting bundled up on the front porch staring into space. My father passed by several times while doing some last minute yard work before finally sitting down next to me and asking, "What you doing?"

"I'm waiting for something good," I replied, remembering an adage I had heard from my teacher, "Good things come to those who wait."

He chuckled and asked if "something good" was anything in particular.

"The ice cream truck," I replied in earnest.

"The ice cream truck doesn't come in the winter," he reminded me.

"I know that, but I really want some ice cream, so I'm waiting," I answered.

A few minutes of silent thought passed, then came the story.

Clyde, the squirrel, had a brother Claude, whom we had only seen one or twice in the fall several years ago. Claude, it seems, had a penchant for "waiting."

While Clyde was busy eating and burying all the nuts he could find, Claude would hang out in the bird feeder watching and waiting, content to eat the occasional nut that would fall from a nearby tree. But when winter finally came there was no storehouse of food on which to rely.

"What happened to Claude?" I asked with wide eyes, imagining the worst.

"I think he moved to Florida," my dad replied, putting an arm around my shoulder, and adding, "I think we'd have more luck with the ice cream thing if we drove to the store and planned dessert after dinner."

What my father wanted me to understand was that waiting, when done as sitting idly by, is not a positive thing. The "waiting place" is, as Dr. Seuss once wrote, "a useless place." It is a place for people, "Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or a No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting."

Expectant waiting, on the other hand, so profoundly experienced in the season of Advent, is full of anticipation, a frame of mind that leads to busy preparation for something wonderful.

In his book, A Pilgrim's Almanac, storyteller and author Edward Hayes writes, "Advent, like its cousin Lent, is a season for prayer and reformation of our hearts. Since it comes at winter time, fire is a fitting sign to help us celebrate Advent...If Christ is to come more fully into our lives this Christmas, if God is to become really incarnate for us, then fire will have to be present in our prayer. Our worship and devotion will have to stoke the kind of fire in our souls that can truly change our hearts. Ours is a great responsibility not to waste this Advent time."

We are all called to be Advent people, people of patience, hope, trust, prayerfully tilling the soil of our hearts as we "wait on the Lord." Then, like the gardener who has faithfully and skillfully prepared the soil before sowing the cherished seeds of future nourishment, we will surely harvest the bountiful fruits of a life, like Mary's, open to the Spirit of God.

And as Advent people we can say with certainty, "Good things come to those who wait - with expectant faith."

____________

Mary is the author of Angels in High Top Sneakers from Loyola Press. Her reflection journals, Through the Strength of Heaven, Beneath the Wings of Love, The Heart's Garden and Not By Bread Alone are available at www.diometuchen.org/religioused/publications.php

Contact

Diocese of Metuchen
http://www.diometuchen.org NJ, US
Mary Regina Morrell - Associate Director, Office of Religious Education, 732 562.1990

Email

mmorrell@diometuchen.org

Keywords

Advent, hope, waiting, squirrels, expectancy

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