Wait for the Lord, whose day is near
Wait for the Lord – be strong – take heart!
-traditional Advent Hymn
Wait for the Lord – be strong – take heart!
-traditional Advent Hymn
A couple of weeks ago, the rector of our community, Fr. Tom Lamanna, was busy making fruit cake in the small kitchen on the main floor of our house. Apparently, he had been gathering and preparing ingredients for a few months and had been busy in the kitchen for several hours before I arrived on the scene. All I know, is that I came home after a long day at school, cold and hungry, and found the house full of the aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg and clove and orange zest and perhaps a drop or two of brandy. I followed the wafting scent with my nose in the air and feeling suddenly festive and Christmassy and so ready for a big old slab of hot fruitcake.What I did not remember from last year, is that these loaves had to be baked weeks ahead of time so some extra tending to could be done before it was completely ready to present for serving. And apparently no snitching would be allowed! The time was so close, the promise of fruitcake so tangible, yet it seemed that I just had to wait! But it is so hard to wait!
This is the Advent feeling. God’s cold, hungry and pandemic-weary people recall week after week of Advent the great promises recorded in the prophets of old, promises of an end to our waiting, promises of an end to suffering and death, the promises of reunion and reconciliation, the promises of an end to resentments and estrangements, the promises of a baby, the promises of a Messiah.
The time is so close now, the preparations have been long, and the aroma is now wafting in the air. But it seems all is not yet ready and so wait we must. In the meantime, let not our spirits flag nor our hearts falter. Let us instead do, as best we can, what John the Baptist instructed us, let us prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts and in our world.
Fr. JK Adams, S.J.
Gonzaga Prep Chaplain
Gonzaga Prep Chaplain