“As we wait, in joyful hope, for the coming of our saviour Jesus Christ.” These familiar words are from the prayer following the Our Father in the Order of Mass. They are spoken by the priest, but prayed by everyone and lived out in every Christian life. We wait in joyful hope! This is what the Christian people have done since the Lord gave us the mandate to make the gospel known. Advent reminds us powerfully that we wait upon the will of The Lord. Not that the will of the Lord is some kind of hidden secret. No!
The will of the Lord is that all people should have life and have it to the full. The waiting part of the Christian experience is exactly what the Advent season reminds us. When we seek to discern the Lord’s will in our lives it often takes a deal of waiting upon Him. Not because he wants to test or even tease us. Rather there are things he knows and understands better about this “being alive” business than any of us mortals do.
But we don’t wait upon Him in a blind panic or in isolation from Him. As the prayer in Mass reminds us, we wait upon the Lord in joyful hope. This joyful hope is like the confidence that a child can have with loving parents. Even when parents have to say no to a child, the child is still loved and cared for. The child has a kind of joyful hope that the love shown him will continue and wants the best for him. So too with the Christian people. We wait in Joyful hope for the Saviour’s birthday. So too, with the same hope, we await the fulfilment of the Christian life when The Lord comes at the end of time. Fr Steve.
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| Lancaster Cathedral Advent Wreath surrounding ambo |