HAS ANYONE 

EVER WAITED FOR YOU?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this First Sunday in Advent is, “Has Anyone Ever Waited For You?”

One of the main themes for Advent is, “Waiting.”

Advent has these great W words: Waiting, Watching, Wondering, as well as Worry.

I was tempted to preach on the word “Watch!” because it’s so loud and clear in today’s gospel from Mark 13: 33-37.

However, I began thinking about this season of Advent, for starters, I began thinking of the theme of waiting.

Christ has already come - some 2000 years ago - yet we Christians celebrate this feast every year: the coming of Jesus Christ.

FOR STARTERS

For starters, for some reason, I found myself being asked, “Has anyone ever waited for you,  Andrew?”

I don’t think I ever heard or asked myself that question.

“Has anyone ever waited for you, Andrew?”

I laughed, because at every funeral and wedding, those in the sacristy are asking: “Where is he?”  I like to cut it close - getting to the church just in time. Why waste time?

But here I’m asking the question in a different, a deeper sense.

Has anyone ever waited for us?

The obvious answer for most of us is, “Of course, my mom waited for me for 9 months.”

What was that like?  I never asked my mom that question.  Yet pregnancy is a waiting period - 9 months.  She was used to this - I  being the 4^th child - and last. Thank God they had 4. Thank you, mom. Thank you, dad. Thank You God.

I love the comment that the last child is always the best child - because they finally got one right.

But what was that like - to be a submarine - under water - for nine months - with a mom waiting for us to break water?

Question: has anyone ever asked their mother that question?

I’ve never asked my mom that - nor my dad.

Question:  does any mom or dad remember their thoughts when they became and were pregnant?

If they do, I’m sure those thoughts are more aware and more acute for their first child.

I know some moms write down their thoughts in a journal.

Oldest kids got the most photos. How about journals?

If you kept a journal, please pick some good moments to share that with your kid - no matter how old he or she or you are.

TITLE AGAIN

The title of my homily is, “Has Anyone Ever Waited For You?”

HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY

It was December 22 or so, 1953.  I went to a high school minor seminary in North East, Pennsylvania. They had them back then. In time, many realized, that’s too soon.  I had wanted to be a priest all through my grammar school years - so I gave it a shot. Most left. It was a long process to the priesthood: 4 years high school, 4 years college, 1 year novitiate, 4 years of theology. Then a final 6 months or so called: Tirocinium.

I got off the train that December 22, 1954 for a 13 day Christmas vacation. It was my first time home since I had left late August.  I left weighing around 130 pounds - a short little pudgy guy with freckles. There are pictures.

I was now about 108 pounds - still short, very short. I looked like an escapee from Auschwitz.  My father was standing there on the train platform in Hoboken, New Jersey, waiting for me.  Then home to Brooklyn.

I didn’t think of this till last night when I was writing this. He’s long dead - but I would  now love to know his thoughts. How long was he standing there.  What was he thinking?

However, I do remember his question - when he saw me - this scrawny little kid - coming home for Christmas: “You’re not going back are you?”

I said, “Yes, of course. I love it.”

I must have looked horribly malnourished.

I don’t remember what my mom or brother or two sisters thought when I got home - if anything - that Christmas - or anytime growing up.

Thinking about this, I’m wondering, “Does anyone really talk to each other?”  “Do people today talk to each other - more than yesterday.”

“Yesterday”  Is that why that Beatle song had such an impact on so many people.

Christmas: what were our Christmases like when we were little?

Yet, I remember Christmas a lot more than any other time growing up.

ADVENT

We begin the season of Advent today.

There are helpful booklets in the back - to read and reflect upon - for this season of Advent.  Take one. I know people say they are very helpful.

Suggestion: this Advent - this Christmas - make it a good time to read, to think about, to talk to each other about, what it was like growing up - what it was like becoming whom we have become so far.

Good question for each other: “Has anyone ever waited for you?”

DOWN DEEP - DEEP DOWN  - VERY DEEP

Does every person down deep, deep down, very deep - wait for God?

Is that what this Christ, Christmas, is all about?

Waiting for God?

Listen to the Christmas songs - starting with “Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel” - and ending up with “Silent Night”.

Listen to the words and hear the theme of waiting: we waiting for God and God waiting for us.

Is every church on the planet a waiting room - where God waits for us?

How many times around our world - every day - do people drop into churches - sit in a bench - and say to God - “Hello” and how many people hear back from God, “I’ve been waiting for you.”

A church is a waiting room.

Prayer is waiting.

Life is people waiting for people.

Type into Google, “Song: People” and listen to the words in this context of waiting.

Whom are the people you waited for?

Who are the people in your life - who are waiting for you to say something?

Who are the people in your life - who you are waiting to hear from?

When was the last time you experienced God waiting for you?

Prayer moments with tears are a hint.

God is not stupid.

God comes as a baby.

God is a helpless baby for starters.

We are stables - messy stables for starters.

We can be dumb donkeys, dumb ox, dumb sheep at times.

But it’s here where Jesus starts.

THE GOSPELS

But the gospels are more than the Christmas stories.

At some point hopefully Christ starts to grow within us - in wisdom, grace, and age.

At some point hopefully the adult Christ walks into our village or to our shore - and calls us to walk the rest of our life with him.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Has Anyone Ever Waited For You?”

Life involves lots of waiting: for birth and for death, on lines and in doctor's offices and in traffic, for someone to heal and for someone to recover.

The thought of this homily is that Christ is waiting for us: Christ starting as a baby  - becoming an adult. Amen.