What or Who Are You Waiting For? Reflections of a Roman Catholic Woman Priest
It seems that we are always waiting for something or someone. Today I was waiting for the phone call of a dear friend from long ago so we can catch up on our lives. She had the women’s basketball game on in the background and was waiting to see how the UConn Huskies were doing. And she was waiting to find a new pet for her life-a senior pet for a senior person. As we talked we were both waiting for a special Christmas Show to come on TV later in the day. We also hoped for the time we could visit. All things worth waiting for. In this season we wait for the joy and excitement of the Christmas spirit in the very air we breathe. People seem more caring, and happier. Days seem brighter. Hope is in the air. Another friend is waiting to hear about a job, while my cousin Bob is awaiting his fifth great grand child! And I eagerly await for my love to visit later this month. Much that I plan is with that visit in mind. And so it is a natural and necessary part of life to wait, to anticipate, to hope.
Hope is exactly what the season of ADVENT that begins today is all about. The first of the four Advent candles is lighted. And we have three weeks of hoping ( the purple candles) and one of Joy ( The pink candle) as we anticipate the coming of Jesus on that first Christmas so long ago. During these weeks of waiting we hope to rekindle the faith to renew the world. We look to find ways to enact our faith and reach out to others in need of the true Christ-mas. We prepare for three comings: the birthday of the Christ of Christ-mas; the second coming of Christ, our Life and Redeemer of a broken world; and our own personal time of meeting the Lord when we are summonsed home. Most importantly in this season of Advent we work at keeping our hearts ready for our God’s appearance in our everyday lives.
On Saturday our Gospel reading warns us not to let our hearts “become drowsy….with the anxieties of everyday life” so that we miss the coming of Jesus (Luke 21:34). It is all too easy to become caught up in our lives so that we miss seeing God’s appearance. And in today’s Gospel Jesus tells us to “Be watchful! Be alert!” We do not know when Jesus will appear and we may be found sleeping so “Watch!” (Mark 13:33-37). In a busy holiday season as in our busy lives we become drowsy and fall asleep all too easily. And rest is important and can renew us, but our “drowsiness” may also overtake our interest and willingness to meet Jesus as He comes, in the faces of all we meet, in the faces of those we love and those who love us, and especially in the faces of the most needy around us, or in the wider world. When we see the face of our loved ones our hearts quicken and wake up so that we can reciprocate and initiate love.
May this Advent be a time when we rouse from the dullness or drowsiness that blinds us from seeing the face of Christ in our very midst. May we pray and meditate and read the Scriptures and other writings that open our hearts to meeting Jesus as he comes to us this Advent season. May we simply open our eyes and look around us with the eyes of love. Then Love will come to us on Christmas.
I look at this picture of our Good Shepherd Community of Christmas 11 years ago and am so thankful for the six beloved ones who are our angels now, guiding us from above. Oh, how we must love as we can every minute of every day. May we remain alert and watchful for the opportunity to love and serve. And to remain thankful for all the faces of Christ here and all around us that remain to guide and love us here and now.
May our loving God bless you this Advent season.
Pastor Judy Lee, RCWP
The Good Shepherd Community in Fort Myers, Florida
12/3/2023
The Long Wait: A R.C. Woman Priest Reflects on ADVENT
Starting with this Sunday we enter the season of Advent. All over the world in big cities and small towns, in the church and in the secular world, in all countries and cultures and with all languages, the preparation for Christmas-the coming of Christ-begins.
We bless the circular Advent wreath with its three purple candles (for Christ’s royalty through the lineage of King David) and one pink candle for Joy-the 3rd Sunday is Gaudate (joy)Sunday. The circle is God’s unending love and the candlelight is Christ, the light of the world). At each week’s lighting the Presider may say: “Be still before God and wait patiently” (Psalm 37:7). Those present may reply “So I wait for you, God, my soul waits, and longs for you….for with you is abundant love and full deliverance”. Psalm 130:5-7).
Each Sunday we light a candle. They symbolize Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. And the readings of the day are about watching and waiting and light and darkness, loss and redemption, miracles of healing and and walking the walk. We are challenged this first week not to “fall asleep on the job”, to “stay awake” as we await Christ’s coming. (The Gospel is Mark 13:33-37).
Theologically, we await the coming of Christ in three ways. First, the celebration of Christ’s historic birth in Bethlehem , God’s entrance into history/herstory in human form- God as one of us! And that is always a WOW! to contemplate. Then, we become alert to seeing God in the events of our every day lives, God -With-Us and God among us-especially in the faces of all around us-especially the poor and the outcast whom we need to see to serve. And finally, we hope for the Second Coming of Christ when God’s kin-dom will finally fully be enacted on earth.
Today, Pope Francis, from St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, reminded us that there are two key words in today’s readings: closeness and watchfulness. The Hebrew Scripture reading from Isaiah 63 and 64 reminds us that God is with us as a parent is with a child, and as a potter works with the clay, so God is our potter and molds and shapes us, each one uniquely to be what we are called to be. Paul reminds the church in Corinth ((I Cor 1:3-9) that God is with us, faithful until the end, giving us all we need to follow Christ. In his homily today Pope Francis reminded us to actively invite Christ to come with us as we watch and wait and serve. Christ is always with us but our acts of invitation help us to KNOW that. So Advent is to be a time of active listening, waiting and inviting and acting with God in our midst.
In the secular world , especially this year with the anxieties and langor of Covid 19, elections, racial and other tensions, and myriad troubles,Christmas-waiting actually began early in November. People all over expressed the need for cheer, for uplifting, for joy and an end to darkness and sadness. Well before Thanksgiving there were Christmas Carols on the radio and Christmas movies on TV and the decoration of stores and homes with bright lights and Christmas themes long before Advent officially began-four weeks before Christmas in the church year. I am late in my neighborhood in getting my Christmas lights up as I only began the day after Thanksgiving. The light is literally and sorely needed this year so I am now hurrying. I do have a lit Cross on my house to break the darkness as we have no street lights here and it is a wonderful symbol of light year round (except on Good Friday when I shroud it). People tell me it means a lot to them to see it. But there is nothing like every house displaying Christmas lights in the dark night here. The world waits for Christmas.
So this Advent season let us light the candles of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love as we await the Light of Christmas. And let us see the light in all of the faces around us and be glad.
While we can not worship in close contact this year let us hold one another in spirit and in love.
Let us bring light and joy to one another.
And let us serve one another.
Let us have a little Christmas every day.
Watchfulness and charity will arouse us, according to Pope Francis, and praying,serving, and loving will bring Christmas near every day. Let us watch and wait and serve.
A Happy Advent to all.
Love and prayers,
Pastor Judy Lee,RCWP
Pastor Marina Teresa Sanchez Mejia,RCWP
and the people of The Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community in Fort Myers, FLorida
judyablfollowingSheWhoIs 
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