Father Koch: What are we waiting for?
November 29, 2024 at 3:06 p.m.
Gospel reflection for Dec. 1, 2024, First Sunday of Advent
We embark on a new liturgical year as we begin the Advent Season this weekend. This short four-week period of time is a reminder to us of the importance of waiting with preparation for the coming of the Lord.
In our life experience we spend a great deal of time waiting. Living as most of us do in a highly urbanized area, some estimates are that we would spend approximately 49 months of our lives just sitting at a red light.
What do we do with that time of waiting? Many times, we are caught up in whatever we are listening to; more often than not it’s an opportunity to text or to check email; and of course, to be poised and ready to go (or to blow the horn) as the light changes. We all know that there is a limited amount of time before it goes yellow again.
The Jewish people in the waning days of what we now call the first century BC had been without a legitimate Davidic king for almost 600 years. They still lived in the hope of restoration, but for some that hoped began to wane. There were those who abandoned this hope all together and drifted into other ways of living. Others, growing impatient with God, decided to take matters into their own hands. There was a short-lived monarchy and that ended in a disastrous usurpation by the Romans. Various splinter groups within Judaism attempted political revolutions against Herod and then the Romans, none of which were successful and then finally resulted in the total destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the residents of the Holy Land.
It is easy to become impatient. We get angry at red lights, blow through cautionary lights, and make a scene in lines at stores and fast-food restaurants.
Jesus warns us against impatience. It is also fruitless to attempt to force God to act. Those factions of Zionist Jews and Evangelical Christians who believe that if they rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem then the Second Coming has to occur on their timeline, are acting impetuously and will learn the lessons of all who have come before them who thought that God acts according to our plans and imaginations.
The time of waiting is a dangerous one. Just as with our time spent at a stop light or waiting in line for our morning dose of coffee, we need to make the most of it. While reading emails at a stop light is imprudent (and by way of disclaimer also illegal in NJ) doing so is at least an attempt at using time to one’s advantage.
We are called to a prudent use of time while waiting. While I might suggest that prayer is a good use of time in line, at a light, or when commuting, there are many ways in which we can make the most of our time while we wait.
Jesus often warned his disciples that waiting can lead to complacency and complacency leads to a tendency to sin.
The time tribulation is immanent, but it is always immanent. The challenge for each one of us is to use the period of waiting to our spiritual advantage, the salvation of our souls and those of others, and the opportunity to evangelize the world in which we live.
The time of waiting is not just a general one, it belongs not just to humanity as a whole, or to the Church. We are all waiting as individual persons for the call of Jesus in our lives. This call comes at the moment of our own death, when we stand before him at the time of personal judgment. At some point in the future -- albeit in years or in millennia -- the Kingdom of God will reach its fulfillment in the denouement of human history.
Let us not waste our time, but rather spend that time waiting with joyful hope doing the work of God in our lives.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.
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Gospel reflection for Dec. 1, 2024, First Sunday of Advent
We embark on a new liturgical year as we begin the Advent Season this weekend. This short four-week period of time is a reminder to us of the importance of waiting with preparation for the coming of the Lord.
In our life experience we spend a great deal of time waiting. Living as most of us do in a highly urbanized area, some estimates are that we would spend approximately 49 months of our lives just sitting at a red light.
What do we do with that time of waiting? Many times, we are caught up in whatever we are listening to; more often than not it’s an opportunity to text or to check email; and of course, to be poised and ready to go (or to blow the horn) as the light changes. We all know that there is a limited amount of time before it goes yellow again.
The Jewish people in the waning days of what we now call the first century BC had been without a legitimate Davidic king for almost 600 years. They still lived in the hope of restoration, but for some that hoped began to wane. There were those who abandoned this hope all together and drifted into other ways of living. Others, growing impatient with God, decided to take matters into their own hands. There was a short-lived monarchy and that ended in a disastrous usurpation by the Romans. Various splinter groups within Judaism attempted political revolutions against Herod and then the Romans, none of which were successful and then finally resulted in the total destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the residents of the Holy Land.
It is easy to become impatient. We get angry at red lights, blow through cautionary lights, and make a scene in lines at stores and fast-food restaurants.
Jesus warns us against impatience. It is also fruitless to attempt to force God to act. Those factions of Zionist Jews and Evangelical Christians who believe that if they rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem then the Second Coming has to occur on their timeline, are acting impetuously and will learn the lessons of all who have come before them who thought that God acts according to our plans and imaginations.
The time of waiting is a dangerous one. Just as with our time spent at a stop light or waiting in line for our morning dose of coffee, we need to make the most of it. While reading emails at a stop light is imprudent (and by way of disclaimer also illegal in NJ) doing so is at least an attempt at using time to one’s advantage.
We are called to a prudent use of time while waiting. While I might suggest that prayer is a good use of time in line, at a light, or when commuting, there are many ways in which we can make the most of our time while we wait.
Jesus often warned his disciples that waiting can lead to complacency and complacency leads to a tendency to sin.
The time tribulation is immanent, but it is always immanent. The challenge for each one of us is to use the period of waiting to our spiritual advantage, the salvation of our souls and those of others, and the opportunity to evangelize the world in which we live.
The time of waiting is not just a general one, it belongs not just to humanity as a whole, or to the Church. We are all waiting as individual persons for the call of Jesus in our lives. This call comes at the moment of our own death, when we stand before him at the time of personal judgment. At some point in the future -- albeit in years or in millennia -- the Kingdom of God will reach its fulfillment in the denouement of human history.
Let us not waste our time, but rather spend that time waiting with joyful hope doing the work of God in our lives.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.