This time of year, whether it is goals for the year at work or plans for personal or spiritual growth, we can feel like time is up before we’ve accomplished what we wanted. In this episode of By Your Life, we’ll talk about letting go of our deadlines in exchange for God’s perfect timing.
Mass Readings Audio
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_12_22.mp3
The Fourth Sunday of Advent – December 22, 2019
Welcome to the ninety-first episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman, and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent. I have to admit that I hoped to be much more prepared for Christmas than I am right now. I’m not talking about having presents bought, wrapped, and under the tree. That’s been done for a week. I’m talking about being more prepared spiritually. I don’t feel like I’ve made much progress this Advent even though I’ve done my daily meditations, followed a special Advent guide, and went to Mass almost every day. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but it was something a little more spectacular. And now, it is the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and I feel like I’m running out of time.
This always happens this time of year. Whether it is my goals for the year at work or my plans for personal or spiritual growth, I feel time is up before I’ve accomplished what I wanted. My temptation is to just write it off and set new goals for the new year. But that is silly.
Sure, year-end does bring some hard deadlines set by the accountants and the IRS, but let’s not get those things confused with the rest of our lives. And certainly, let’s not let that kind of thinking apply to our relationship with God. God has no beginning and no end, he just is. So, let’s not write off the rest of Advent. After all, there are three days left. How is God inviting you to experience him in these three days, and every day?
Let’s look at our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah. As he did with Ahaz, God is inviting you to ask him “for a sign from the LORD, your God; let it be deep as Sheol, or high as the sky!” (Is 7:11) This is an extraordinary offer. Yet, how do we answer God’s invitation? Do we respond like Ahaz? Ahaz turned God down. He refuses to “tempt the Lord.” (Is 7:12)
Although at first, this sounds noble because as Jesus said to the devil, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Mt 4:7), what Ahaz is really doing is refusing to trust God and the commitment he made to David’s dynasty. God wants to reassure Ahaz by offering an extraordinary or miraculous sign that would prove his firm will to save the royal house of David from its oppressors. But Ahaz prefers to depend upon the might of Assyria rather than the might of God. Here is what is the most amazing part of this offer. Even though Ahaz is reluctant to ask for a sign, God gives him one anyway. The Prophet Isaiah told him, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” (Is 7:14)
In our Gospel, Matthew reminds us what the Lord had spoken to Ahaz. He explained that the angel’s message to Joseph in the dream “took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” (Mt 1:20-23) But, Ahaz lived over 700 years before this promise was fulfilled, so he wasn’t around to see it. It is understandable that he doubted God’s presence. But here we are 2,000 years after the miracle of the Incarnation, and we are just like Ahaz. We don’t trust that God is with us, any more than he did. The amazing thing is that God doesn’t stop being with us just because we stop trusting.
For the past three weeks, our Scripture readings have been preparing us for the celebration of the birth of Christ. This historical event happened over 2,000 years ago. We have also been reminded that he will come again, but “you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” (Mt 27:42) But this week, we are reminded that God is not just the Child that was born in the past, nor is he a God that waits for us in the future. He is a God who is with us, today, now, at this moment. Our human deadlines are meaningless to a timeless God.
The hard part is that our predicaments are not timeless. For Mary and Joseph, the nine months of pregnancy didn’t correspond to the timing of Joseph taking Mary into his home. If you don’t pay your bills on time, you will pay a penalty. If you don’t make your quota by the end of the quarter, you don’t get your bonus. If you don’t get to the airport on time, you miss your plane. This is because we live in Chronos, or a quantitative, chronological, or sequential time.
God, on the other hand, is a God of Kairos, a God of the qualitative. He always acts in the right or opportune moment, in the appointed time according to his purpose. Trusting God means that we trust that his Kairos is better than our Chronos. Our timing is not God’s perfect timing, so just because he doesn’t respond when and how we think he should, doesn’t mean he isn’t with us.
So maybe, this is why we were reminded to practice patience (Jas 5:7-10) this Advent. Maybe this is why we were taught to think harmony (Rom 15:5). Maybe this is why we were told to stay awake and be ready, “For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” (Rom 13:11) If you don’t feel ready, maybe you are holding onto something when you need to be letting go and trusting God.
As I ask you this question, I’m asking myself too. What am I holding on to? Fear? Anxiety? Impatience? Pride? I think it is a little of each of these. When I say this out loud, it sounds a little silly. Why would I choose anxiety over peace? Why would I choose impatience over patience? Why would I choose fear over faith? Why would I choose to trust myself instead of God?
This Advent, God has been inviting us, you and me, in an extraordinary way to enter a deeper relationship with him. Even though we may feel like we’ve not accepted this invitation as we should, and even though we may not realize the signs this relationship promises right away, he doesn’t stop just because we are coming to the end of our liturgical season. This extraordinary invitation will still be there on Christmas morning, at the beginning of Lent, during Holy Week, on Easter Sunday, Pentecost, and every day during ordinary time.
So, throw out those Chronos deadlines and start living in Kairos. Christ was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. Christ will come again, though we do not know the day nor the hour. In the meantime, Christ is with us, today. Our job is to open hearts and minds wide enough to take in what God wants to give. And he will continue to pursue us, until the end of time.
So, in these last few days of Advent, I’m going to review the past three weeks with the benefit of hindsight. I’m going to ask God to show me what I may have missed because I was paying too much attention to my schedule and my concerns and I’m going to look for how God was with me through it all. I encourage you to join me. These last few days before Christmas are a perfect time to be with God. L
Let’s pray:
Oh, make us one with you below, in heart and will and love;
And when our time draws nigh to go, still keep us one above.
We wait in faith, we wait in prayer until the happy morn,
When you shall come our Flesh to share, and for our sake be born.
(From Dec. 23rd O Antiphon “O Emmanuel”)
So, let us rejoice, and go forth and glorify the Lord by our lives.
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