Monday, November 30, 2015

Advent's question - what are we all ultimately waiting for in life?


The start of every liturgical year brings us into the season of Advent.  These fleeting four weeks often pass us in double-quick time amidst the many other preparations for Christmas.  Many of us hardly have the time to truly enter into this spiritual space that the church provides for us to ready ourselves to wonder at the incarnation of God.  The way the world of mammon promotes Christmas with such fervour causes our spiritual preparation for Christmas to take a back seat.  The way things seem to be going, Advent would be lucky to be given a seat at all!

But in truth, Advent centres around a very important element in all of our lives, whether we are religious or not.  This is because Advent’s heart is that of a yearning, a longing and a deep hunger that seeks to be sated.

Every single one of us can identify some part in our hearts which sees us incomplete, unfulfilled, and unfinished, causing us to constantly crane our necks to look for, pine for and yearn for that one thing that we consider to be our ultimate fulfillment and which once attained, will give us what we believe to be lasting and true joy. 

The scenarios vary, but the underlying truth is that there is an undeniable consistency that threads through all of them - persons illness looking for a healing or a cure for their condition so that they can get back to life as they knew it before; students who yearn for the day when they finally get their hands on that coveted diploma; refugees who experiencing homelessness, leaving them with no real safe haven that accords them citizenship with its rights; broken hearts languishing in their depression anticipating the day when they can dare to love again; vice presidents of some multinational corporation just anxious for the day when they can sit in the place of their boss as the head of the company; single, unmarried persons pining for the appearance of a special human being who will be the perfect life partner in marriage.  These are just examples to show that there is a longing that exists in all human hearts.  We seem to exist in a world where there is a continual waiting, with an insatiable hunger that often leaves us hungrier and more needy than when we began to address it. 

Doesn’t this prompt anyone to ask whether at all there exists a fundamental longing or an intrinsic desire that is at the root of this, or from where these strivings originate?  Faith gives us an affirmative answer to this, and in the fifth century, St Augustine named it with a graced brilliance. 

In his autobiography simply called Confessions, St Augustine bore his soul with great depth and honesty when he said “Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.” 


Some would say that Augustine is probably history’s most notable ‘playboy-to-priest’, and his no-holds barred narration of his life shows that even great saints have had their share of chasing after false joys and temporary thrills.  But it was only by the grace of God that he was led via his empty chases to the only and ultimate chase of all that he found peace, contentment and tranquility.  It was revealed that what he was chasing without, was actually seeking him within.  Before this discovery, the U2 hit “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” could have been his anthem.

In a nutshell, Augustine gave an answer to man’s constant quest for what he thinks ultimately satisfies and sets him at rest.  All the yearnings and hopes that man can ever have are subordinate to the yearning that exists not just in the heart, but also in the very purpose that all hearts are created for – a union with our Creator.  

Religion, when done well, brings us to that point where we are able to identify this.  Religion then becomes the gateway for us to make that all-important connection with the origin of our hearts’ greatest desire.  But when done badly, and when misused, religion can often end up doing the exact opposite of what it was meant to do, and can become in and of itself an end rather than a means toward one.   Bad religion controls, but good religion truly frees.  This is not to say that good religion is something that should be free of any boundaries either.  In fact, good religion can and should show the love that undergirds all boundaries that are necessary for true freedom.  We will be doing God a great injustice if we lead people to worship only the religion of God instead of helping them to meet the God of religion.

Advent’s purpose, though manifold, is to get everyone to dare to ask what in the world they are waiting for and hoping for in life.  The end of Advent, which is Christmas, is the answer to this perennial question.

We all have our different longings, hopes and yearnings in life.  Advent serves to remind us not just of our common yearnings as human beings, but also reveals that our ultimate yearning can only be fulfilled by the one who has created us in love, and came to show us how to truly love. 

3 comments:

  1. Hmmm frLuke "We will be doing God a great injustice if we lead people to worship only the religion of God instead of helping them to meet the God of religion." so profound for me. And I ask myself: should i just be a follower of Jesus, or, strive for discipleship :)

    wt

    ReplyDelete
  2. “Advent Question - What are we all ultimately waiting for in life?”

    Yesterday, at the morning mass, I was startled and then deeply moved by the prophecy of prophet Isaiah when he said that “ ..............He (The Lord) will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples, and the shroud enwrapping all nations, He will destroy Death for ever.” This seemed so apt even for our times.

    In the First Coming – Jesus came to fulfil this promise when he came to remove the weeping veil of suffering - curing the lame, the blind, feeding the hungry, lifting up the weak and poor, the down-trodden...........to show the magnitude of the Father’s love and mercy for His people. In the Gospel, we see that The Lord provides - abundantly, over-flowingly - all and more than what we need or deserve............for He alone knows and cares for all our needs – be it material , emotional and spiritual..........even to the hidden pains and secret tears, our hopes and desires.

    So when confronted with your question of - “ Advent Question - What are we all ultimately waiting for in life?” I can only think of countering it with another question – “What is it that can satisfy the deepest hunger and longing of the human heart?”

    The great Saints of the Church have not only given us the answer (refer to St Augustine) but also showed the way we should go as we take in the life of St Francis Xavier, whose feast day we are celebrating today. We may not be as courageous as him in crossing vast oceans to bring the Good News to those ignorant of the Gospel but we can heed The Lord’s call to “Go out to the whole world, proclaim the Good News” within the precincts of home and neighbourhood – perhaps not through preaching at street corners or speakers corner – but through our words and actions and the way we try to live the Good News.

    God bless u, Fr.

    tessa

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Fr Luke,

    It is indeed very comforting to know that "that our ultimate yearning can only be fulfilled by the one who has created us in love, and came to show us how to truly love."
    So what are we waiting for? We are waiting for the second coming of Christ. We are waiting to return to our Creator. In the meantime, while we are waiting on earth, we have Jesus as our model of love and suffering.

    Sometimes it baffles me as to how Jesus could have chosen to be born to die. We human beings are also born to die. But do we choose to be born to die?
    I can only conclude that God's love for his children and people is so deep and so great and that He is beyond our human understanding and reasoning.
    Because of his immense love and his choice, there is hope for mankind. God has not given up on us. He has not given up on me. I pray that I will persevere and not give up in the face of life's challenges because God is Hope.

    Happy advent and happy waiting, everyone!

    Eileen

    ReplyDelete