Have you ever experienced waiting for someone, a significant other perhaps? The kind of waiting in which you don’t even worry about the time, but only about the joy that you are feeling as you anticipate his coming. When he arrives, your heart is filled with that joy and it is even doubled because waiting is finally over. This is exactly the feeling when we encounter the Lord.

Joy is the meaning of Gaudete which we celebrate this Sunday as we lit the rose candle of the advent wreath. In the second reading, we are invited by St. James to rejoice because the Lord is near. The significant other whom we are expecting is finally here.

Sometimes, though, we were guilty of asking the same question by the disciple, “are you the one who is to come or should we look for another one?” For example, in the mission, when we need someone to help us achieve our goals, we want to make sure that the person will come, or else we shall look for another one. Certainly, it is a human tendency that is neither good nor bad. It is the way we think about how to respond to the needs of the people around us, but this is not what Jesus wanted to tell us.

Jesus likes to teach us the virtue of patience. In this earthly life, it’s practical to look for another one to accomplish tasks and it is also being flexible in whatever may arise, but, does it make us happy to have a substitute or a replacement? Yes, there may be happiness, but at the end of the day it will pass away, unlike the “joy” that the Lord grants us each day which stays. The one who is to come is not just an ordinary person, but the Lord Himself; no one can ever substitute or replace Him. There is joy in waiting. It is why we have this expression “worth the wait.” It is the same with the Lord, we shall not look for another one because He is worth the wait as He also awaits us in His kingdom of heaven.

Prophet Isaiah also reminds us to “have courage, do not fear.” What do we have to be afraid of when we are expecting the Lord? See how He made everything possible when He healed the blind, lame, lepers, and deaf, brought the dead back to life, and have the poor hear the good news. Just like what Bl. Francisco Palau said, “Whoever trusts in God is well cared for (L56,2).”  The coming of the Lord is near so let us REJOICE in His providence and let us trust Him.

 

Queen of Carmel Community

Lucena City