Advent is a time of immense waiting. We wait for what we cannot yet see. It is growing…coming to be, but we wait in the darkness of unknowing. The liturgy gives us a woman during this season to teach us how to trust that something is going to emerge from the darkness. The darkness is going to give way to the light. We can learn much from Mary during this Advent time, especially because the present darkness around us is so intense.
The woman is aware that her very being is shaping something, yet the design is being woven by an unseen hand. Her humanness is providing the ‘stuff,’ the DNA, the cells, the tissue, the bone, but she does not see what it is becoming. But SomeOne else has the plan. She assists the plan. She eats, sleeps, speaks, and waits.
It sounds like us, the Church, doesn’t it. We so long for all the bickering to stop. We long for the corruption to end. We want the immigrants to find a home. We want the wars to cease for lack of interest. Yet all the while our longing is weaving something. Our desires strain to be realized and like the woman, we sense that SomeOne has a plan for what shall be. Advent is our time of longing for what grows in us, among us, from us. Advent is our time to assist…it is the time of active waiting. We too will eat, sleep, and wait. We will listen to the news…watching for signs of hope, signs of what is coming to be in the dark.
And just as sure as that newness will emerge from Mary’s longing, so will the reign of God emerge from the darkness of our Advent longing. We do not know what it shall look like…we only know that its coming is as sure as that birth. We assist. We do the ordinary things with extraordinary active love, and in due time, it comes. It comes from the time of our active waiting in the fertile dark of our faith.
Come, Lord Jesus…Do not delay.
From our longing and our tears,
Weave the flesh of our peace.
Build the blocks of unity from our differences.
Shape us into a people after your own heart.
Teach us, Weaver of plans, how to assist you.
Be it done unto us according to your Word
As we wait in the dark.
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