Time

A year after my father passed away, I had just moved to England and went to Mass (actually a Communion Service as it was celebrated by the parish’s permanent deacon) on his anniversary. After the service, I introduced myself to the deacon and said how meaningful it had been to me. He said, ‘Well then, I’ve offered that Mass for your father. I am absolutely convinced there is no time with God.’ His words have always stuck with me – the idea that when we come to God, God is always ready and waiting for us and that our human construct of time doesn’t worry God in the slightest. Oftentimes when I have remembered something important that already happened that I had meant to pray about, I go ahead and do so anyway, thinking about this idea that any time you come to God, it ‘counts’ for the intention for which you pray.

Today as we celebrate the Second Sunday of Advent and hear again the story of John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus, we also are told in the Second Reading (2 Pt 3:8-14) that “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard ‘delay,’ but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Peter goes on to say that as we await “new heavens and a new earth” to “be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.” It is a helpful concept in this season of waiting and preparation to think of God as waiting for us, too. Not as a sort of ‘get out of jail free’ card in that we can do what we like and come to God in the end; on the contrary, the message of this Sunday is very much about preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord. But rather the idea that as we travel through our lives with ups and downs and detours in the journey, God is constantly calling for us and waiting with patience – wanting the best both from and for us, but not counting time and rushing and getting to the destination the way we so often do. With God the waiting is gentle and constant, always prepared to be there for us and with us. I pray in this season of anticipation that I, too, prepare myself to receive the Lord in the celebration of His birth.