We begin Advent today, which means it’s that time of year to say, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it’s Advent.” Which means in a few weeks we’ll be saying, “I can’t believe it’s Christmas,” and then not long after that, “I can’t believe it’s Lent,” and then “I can’t believe it’s Easter.”
We find ourselves saying this sort of thing all the time, which shows that we have a sense that time is slipping away, going quickly by. And yet the Gospels tell us again and again that we need patience. Even as we feel time going quickly, we are impatient.
Jesus addresses both of these attitudes in his preaching. He tells his disciples that he will be back soon, that they must be vigilant in their waiting, but also that they must not grow weary if he takes longer than they expect. He warns his disciples today, for example, that they must not be so eager for his coming that they are gullible to those who come proclaiming themselves to be the messiah.
We go between patience and impatience. We wish time away as stressful things press upon us, and then we find ourselves lamenting the quick passage of time. In another passage from the Bible, Jesus warns us to “allow our hearts to become drowsy from dissipation and drunkenness and from the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap” (Lk 21: ).
If we pay careful attention we see that both extremes are present here. Jesus warns us against “dissipation and drunkenness” – trying to have too much fun – but also “anxieties of daily life” – not having enough fun, taking our daily tasks too seriously or becoming morbidly preoccupied with competitiveness that is a necessary part of life, but one that consumes us if we let it.
Neither of these extremes is very far from us. Dissipation is mass produces by the popular culture, and we work more than ever. Very often the two extremes go together. The person who is occupied with the daily anxieties of life as though his dignity and happiness depended on career success and the fulfillment of professional or academic ambition, turns to dissipating realities to “blow off steam.”
We have to maintain a balance in life, but striking a balance isn’t simply a matter of compromising between fun and work or serious pursuits and play. A proper balance can only be maintained if we turn to the one who holds the key to a proper ordering of our lives, Christ. Only when we understand that our dignity and happiness will be achieved by a closer conformity to his example will we be able to make an appropriate balance between work and play. And only then will we be able to really make good use of the time given to us, and not experience it either as wasted and desiccated, gone before it could be enjoyed.
We must orient ourselves to Christ by turning to him as the key to our living a good life, a life according to God’s intention. We turn to him today at mass, but we must turn to him more frequently than this. We must turn to him in prayer, daily, and we must turn to him in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession. Our lives are to be a patient waiting for the Lord, which mean giving ourselves over to the life of discipleship as Christ configures it through his Church.
Let us all resolve during this season of patient waiting to make use of the time, to not let it slip away. Let it be what all our time is to be: a patient waiting for the Lord, who will come to now in the gift of peace and grace, and at the last with the gift of eternal life.
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