The
nights were cold; the moon was dark; they could hear the bleating of sheep and
the howling of the wind through the trees. But they watched, and they waited.
The nights seemed to drag on forever; these shepherds were waiting for the dawn
to bring its light and warmth, every hour seemed to grow colder and darker, and
it was hard to stay awake and alert. But they watched, and they waited. These
shepherds were waiting for the dawn on the sun and of a new day. They watched,
and they waited.
The day was hot, the sun
was blinding, and when the wind blew, it was scorching and often carried grains
of sand that became projectiles that assaulted any unprotected skin. But
they watched, and they waited. God had told their ancestor that he would have
as many decedents as there are stars in the sky, and they would poses and live
in the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now they were slaves
in a foreign land, a place that once welcomed them as honored guests. Now they
were the lowest of the low, they were slaves. But they watched, and they
waited. As the Jewish people began to multiply more and more in Egypt, the
Egyptians grew more anxious until "they came to dread the Israelites and
worked them ruthlessly." But they watched, and they waited. The Jewish
people cried out for deliverance to their one God, the one their forefathers
brought from Israel and with whom they had kept the covenant, but they heard
nothing. So they watched, and they waited. In time God sent them a prophet and
a leader; Moses, who would lead them out of Egypt and out of slavery back to
the Promised Land, as we heard in the first reading from the Prophet Baruch,
"Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery…you have been
remembered by God".
Waiting is a common theme in
the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. When Sarah married Abraham, like most
couples, they wanted children, but Sarah did not bear any children; it must not
have been easy for Sarah to be the only young married woman at the well without
a baby, as all the other young mothers were showing off their precious bundles
of joy. It was not until her old age, when Sarah was beyond the time of
conception that God allowed Sarah to conceive. Sarah and Abraham had to wait.
In the Gospel of John, we
hear of the death of Jesus's friend Lazarus. When Jesus finally got to Bethany,
where Lazarus and his sisters had lived, both of Lazarus's sisters, Mary and
Martha, complained about Jesus being late. Both Mary and Martha said to Jesus,
if you had been here, Lazarus would not have died. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus
had to wait.
So why all this waiting?
God knows everything, and as much as we would sometimes like to pretend it's
not true, He knows everything we have or have not done and knows the difference
between our wants and our needs. Yet, he keeps us waiting. I have come up with
a couple of possible answers. First, waiting reveals our true motives
(sometimes we can even deceive ourselves as to why we do what we do), waiting
teaches us patience (I am sure I am only speaking for myself when I say I could
use a little more patience {right now please}). Those are reasonable points,
and there are others, but I would like to focus on is trust. Trust in God and
God's timing, and that God knows situations, facts and truths that we are not
able to know or understand. Not as man sees does God see. Waiting for God shows
not only the depth of relationship with God but also a person's dependence upon
God. God knows the beginning, the middle, and the end of all stories, and more
importunately, He knows the reason things are or are not done at certain times
and according to our orders.
Let's revisit the stories I
mentioned earlier. Sarah and Abraham, if Sarah had had a baby nine months and
two days after getting married, no one would have been surprised or amazed, a
little counting of months on fingers, but that's about it. But God had let long
years of anguish and unfulfilled hopes go by and nothing. But when God deemed
it was time for Sarah to give birth, she did. After waiting all those years,
you had to believe there was a lot of built-up anticipation and belief this was
an extraordinary baby because God brought about this pregnancy long after Sarah
and Sarah's body had given up hope of ever having a child. God did something
only God could do.
In the story of Lazarus, if
Jesus had gotten there sooner, Jesus could have healed his friend Lazarus;
there should be some benefit to having Jesus Christ as your best buddy. And
that unto itself would have been a miracle, but it would have been just another
healing. Jesus Christ did not heal Lazarus. He raised Lazarus from the dead.
Truly only God has the power over life and death.
One more reason for
waiting, waiting can be a time of preparation, readiness, and growth. When I
was in seminary, many of the seminarians lamented that it had taken too long to
get there and did not like being told they had second or delayed vocations to
the priesthood. I liked to say that we did not have second or delayed
vocations; this was our vocation we've just been in formation for a very, very
long time, a season of waiting and preparation.
So not only is it essential
to wait for God, but it is also vital to prepare. In today's Gospel reading,
St. Luke quotes the Prophet Isiah when he says, "Prepare the way of the
Lord, make straight his paths, every valley will be filled, and every mountain
made low." Is Isiah talking about excavation work involving a lot of
cranes, bulldozers, and dump trucks? "The winding roads shall be made
straight." It sounds like the EPA will be getting involved here. The
answer is, of course, no, scaffolding and demolition would be much easier than
what we are being asked to do. This is the time to make an honest self-assessment
of what valleys we have allowed ourselves to fall into. Generally, valleys are
not places of sunshine and light, and what mountains we have erected between
ourselves and God, and to look at the winding roads that took us places we
never meant to go. We are being asked to look inside of ourselves, and so
prepare our hearts. To make of ourselves something worthy of being God's
children and of being the object of God's love.
So, we know we are waiting,
and we know how to prepare while we are waiting, but what are we waiting for.
Let's go back to those shepherds, waiting in the fields outside of a little
backwater town called Bethlehem, waiting in the cold dark night. They, like us,
are waiting for the light, the Messiah, who is the light of the world. The birth
of Jesus was announced first to these shepherds; not the learned or wise or
educated, but those on the lower rung of society, these shepherds were the
first to hear of the birth of Jesus Christ, our savior, our deliverer, our
Messiah. God came to the lowest of the low, the outcasts and forgotten of
society, God uses the foolish to shame the wise. God used Moses to save his
people, and through Moses gave his people the law, through Jesus that law was
fulfilled, and through Jesus Christ came our redemption.
Now is the time of waiting and preparation. So, what is our cold night that keeps us from the light of Christ?
Photograph by Brother Daniel. Today's homily by Deacon, Brother Stephen.
