Waiting with Hope and Courage

Today marks the beginning of Advent, one of the most beautiful seasons of the liturgical year. I have always loved the lighting of the Advent candles, the singing of O Come O Come Emmanuel. I love the preparations for Christmas. The anticipation. Decorating the home, baking cookies, and buying gifts. It's a time of year that makes me feel hopeful and excited.

I often imagine young Mary, pregnant and terrified. Sure, an angel visited her and told her everything would be great, that she was carrying the child Jesus. The King. The Savior.

But would knowing that make things easier? 

Was Mary filled with hope? 

Pope Francis said "Mary in that instant appears to us like one of the many mothers in our world, courageous to the extreme."

Courageous to the extreme. 

You see, hope and courage go hand in hand. 

Pope Francis went on to say that Mary "teaches us the virtue of waiting even when everything appears meaningless." 

These recent days (and the last few months) there are times when I've felt there was nothing more difficult than waiting. And meaningless? Some of this difficult time sure seems that way. 

But Advent? Advent is all about the waiting. 

Now Mary didn't just sit around and fret. There was work to be done - probably even more so back then than there is today. Her preparations were certainly different than ours. Traveling on a donkey while pregnant? Leaving your home? Not knowing the future, but knowing something very big was coming. That's some kind of courage and hope!

It's not like we're waiting in line, with nothing to do, although isolation and quarantine can sometimes feel that way. No, this waiting is more like expectation. Hope! 

We're waiting because we know what there is to wait for, and it's a lot bigger than the end of a period of isolation and quarantine. We're waiting for Jesus.

Regardless of the way we wait, Jesus will come. Christmas will come. We can wait and do nothing, as if standing in line, letting the whole world go by. Quarantined. Isolated. Alone.

Or we can wait with hope and expectation and longing. And while we wait, we prepare. 

So, decorate the house, bake those cookies, buy those gifts. Prepare the way of the Lord, for He is coming, and we need to be ready.