If time is not filled by a present gifted with meaning, the waiting runs the risk of becoming unbearable; if something is expected, but at this moment there is nothing, namely, if the present is empty, every instant that passes seems exaggeratedly long, and the waiting is transformed into a weight that is too heavy because the future is totally uncertain. When, instead, time is gifted with meaning and we perceive in every instant something specific and valuable, then the joy of waiting makes the present more precious.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us live the present intensely, when we already have the gifts of the Lord, let us live it projected to the future, a future full of hope. The Christian Advent thus becomes an occasion to reawaken in ourselves the true meaning of waiting, returning to the heart of our faith which is the mystery of Christ, the Messiah awaited for long centuries and born in the poverty of Bethlehem. Coming among us, he has brought us and continues to offer us the gift of his love and of his salvation. Present among us, he speaks to us in many ways: in sacred Scripture, in the liturgical year, in the saints, in the events of daily life, in the whole of creation, which changes in aspect if he is behind it or if it is obfuscated by the mist of an uncertain origin and an uncertain future. In turn, we can speak to him, present to him the sufferings that afflict us, impatience, the questions that spring from the heart. We are certain that he always hears us! And if Jesus is present, there is no time deprived of meaning and void. If he is present, we can continue to wait also when others can no longer give us their support, even when the present is exhausting.
Dear friends, Advent is the time of the presence and the expectation of the eternal. Precisely for this reason it is, in a particular way, the time of joy, of an internalized joy, that no suffering can erase. Joy because of the fact that God became a child. This joy, invisibly present in us, encourages us to walk with confidence. Model and support of this profound joy is the Virgin Mary, through whom the Child Jesus has been given to us. May she, faithful disciple of her Son, obtain for us the grace to live this liturgical time vigilant and diligent in waiting. Amen.
Waiting
December 1, 2009 by Amy
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Thanks for posting this Amy. I get the Vatican newsletter, but I didn’t see the Holy Father’s homily from the first Vespers of Advent. I will have to check youtube and see if the video is posted yet…God bless…Jason
Loved the first and very long sentence in its realism concerning time and waiting and gift.
And the longest middle paragraph was wonderful.
Did not love his attempt though in the last paragraph to keep Joy as invulnerable within the Christian even when under duress: “an internalized joy, that no suffering can erase”. It’s not just Benedict. I’ve heard so many sermons that in effect deny the real reach of suffering so that it does not reach the fruits of the Holy Spirit considered in their palpable consolation form.
If we are honest, we will note that the gifts of the Holy Spirit endure better than the fruits of the Holy Spirit under great duress …and the “fruits” even in their symbolism are more exterior than the tree and its roots and more vulnerable to the winds.
Christ did not have palpable joy as He was whipping the money changers out of the temple or as he was stating to the pharisees that they had the devil as their father (Jn 8:44).
Watch Scripture below as it notes that once in great duress, our intellect must hold on to the truth of duress as being joyful in fact though not being joyful as felt palpably…and the intellect has to do that because joy as a palpable emotion can vanish under suffering. So the NT uses the phrase “consider it all joy” and the Vulgate uses the same intellective (not emotional) movement within the person: “estimate”.
The NT (NAB) in James one says… 2 “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, 3 for you know that the testing 3 of your faith produces perseverance.”
Vulgate…same passage: “(omne gaudium existimate) fratres mei cum in temptationibus variis incideritis”
In short we must allow for the disappearance of palpable joy. Hence even Christ on the cross did not recite out loud the joyful parts of the psalm that he quoted as to its dire phrase (“my God, my God… why hast thou abandoned me”) so as to show us that joy in its palpable form can be very out of place. Otherwise He would have included joyful comments from the same psalm on the cross and He did not.
A woman witnesses her child being killed by a car and if she is sane and Christian, it will be very long before she feels joy palpably again….but much sooner than that she will be able to intellectualize within struggle that God will bring the best out of that tragedy since He permitted it at all. Thus she is considering it all joy (in the words of James) while not feeling any joy for some time.
I think your link is probably not pointing where you meant for it to. But I could be wrong.
When reading this, I was reminded of the modern “mindfulness” movement that encourages us to be aware of the sensations we experience in the present moment.
Of course, I think that Pope Benedict’s Christian wisdom preceded the psychology of mindfulness, but what is the link between the two? Is it possible that Benedict has been influenced by this cultural movement in psychology? Or, rather, is it possible that “mindfulness” tries us to give us that sense of presence, which we are meant to require psychologically (insofar as we are meant to live as human beings in Christ’s presence) but lack in a post-Christian society?
I also think that it is interesting that a technological society must constantly be reminded of its need to feel and experience what is happening to it in the present moment. It is not likely that you would need to remind a farmer in China that he must “become conscious of his sensations,” because his daily life is one very much in contact with the world around him. But, perhaps, we must remind ourselves because so much of our livelihood – our use of the computer and television, our processed food – is devoid of a sensation that satisfies.
This also relates back to a common thread of yours, Amy: the Kindle, Nook, and eReader! These electronic versions of book fail to give us the sensory stimulation we require in order to be healthy persons. Although there is nothing categorically wrong with them, it must be noted that we do need to touch things in order to be mentally healthy.
“Mindfulness” isn’t a psych concept at all. It’s a Buddhist concept which shrinks are currently using.
However, the term “mindfulness” is used to translate that Buddhist concept, only because Christians had a concept under that term first.
“Recollectedness” is probably the better way to mention the Christian concept of both noticing what is going on, and calling God’s presence to mind.
Um. Actually, I guess “recollectedness” means something else. Forget I said that.
Actually, the evidence of old spiritual texts from various places around the world would tend to indicate that the simple pre-modern farmer from China tends to let his mind drift from the present moment, too. I mean, that’s the whole Zen quest for enlightenment right there — trying to live in the moment.
Humans have the power not to live in the present, and that’s what separates us from the animals. But we don’t need to use that power all the time.
Anyway, I’m sure there’s a term for the Christian concept somewhere, but I don’t know what it is. Maybe just paying attention or active participation. Shrug.