How do I patiently hurry up?

Homily

2nd Sunday of Advent

10 December 2023

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG

How do I patiently hurry up?  It sounds impossible, yet the scriptures this weekend require it.  To do Advent well, I must patiently hurry up.

Once again this weekend, my faith leads me into a mysterious paradox.  It ought to feel familiar by now, so I may as well embrace it.  God is rarely an either/or, but most always a both/and.  He leads us into mysterious paradoxes that unlock the fullness of reality.  He loves us too much to invite us to anything less.  So this weekend, I am invited to patiently hurry up.  What does this even mean?

St. Peter is our second reading is the one who lays it out.  He says that to God a thousand years are as a day, and a day is as a thousand years.  St. Peter names the life of faith accurately, it is a patient process that is full of surprising, disruptive moments.  It's a both/and.  St. Peter reminds us that God is never distant nor delayed, but He is patient.  Yet at the same time the coming of the Lord is like a thief in the night, a sudden and pivotal disruption that requires the utmost readiness.

Patience is not sleepiness. No, it is long-suffering with attention and sensitivity.  St. Peter puts it another way, that I should be a person who simultaneously waits for and hastens the coming of the Lord! What, St. Peter? Are you crazy?  Aren't those things opposites - waiting and hastening?  Yet as I look at my life, and the life of those around me, I see what he is saying.  To be really good at life is to embrace that it is a patient process that is full of surprising, disruptive moments.  It's not an either/or, but a both/and.

John the Baptist appears this weekend kicking and screaming as only He can to awaken us to this same reality!  He dresses me down because He announces not just a word, but THE WORD that will change all of history.  He introduces not just a person but THE PERSON who alone can save us.  He readies us not just for a pivotal moment but THE MOMENT at which the world will receive its savior.  He kicks my rear end because he knows that the likelihood that I will miss the true meaning of Christmas this year is very high.

John the Baptist tells us to repent.  I will be repenting of two things this week.  The first is anything that makes me less patient.  The other is anything that makes me less sensitive.  For if I'm going to have my best Christmas, I have to figure out a way to patiently hurry up.