Watching and Waiting

Ave Maria! Our response to the responsorial psalm at Mass this morning -- "Blessed are those who wait for the Lord!" -- made me think once again of Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman. Among his sermons is one entitled "Watching", which is undeniably part of waiting. The following passage from this sermon is often quoted during Advent:

"He watches for Christ who has a sensitive, eager, apprehensive mind; who is awake, alive, quick-sighted, zealous in seeking and honouring Him; who looks out for Him in all that happens, and who would not be surprised, who would not be over-agitated or overwhelmed, if he found that He was coming at once."

But it is another passage that I'm recalling on this Saturday devoted to Our Lady because it speaks of the obedience that must be part of our watching and waiting, and it was through Mary's obedience that the watching and waiting of mankind became fulfilled. Bl. Newman says that we "have to seek His face; obedience is the only way of seeking Him." By her obedience, the handmaid of Nazareth not only sought God but also found Him. Bl. Newman adds that "to obey Him is to approach Him." The Virgin of Advent not only approached God but also enables us to come to Him through her and with her.

Year passes after year silently; Christ's coming is ever nearer than it was. O that, as He comes nearer earth, we may approach nearer heaven! O, my brethren, pray Him to give you the heart to seek Him in sincerity. Pray Him to make you in earnest. You have one work only, to bear your cross after Him. Resolve in His strength to do so. Resolve to be no longer beguiled by "shadows of religion," by words, or by disputings, or by notions, or by high professions, or by excuses, or by the world's promises or threats. Pray Him to give you what Scripture calls "an honest and good heart," or "a perfect heart," and, without waiting, begin at once to obey Him with the best heart you have. Any obedience is better than none,— any profession which is disjoined from obedience, is a mere pretence and deceit. Any religion which does not bring you nearer to God is of the world. You have to seek His face; obedience is the only way of seeking Him. All your duties are obediences. If you are to believe the truths He has revealed, to regulate yourselves by His precepts, to be frequent in His ordinances, to adhere to His Church and people, why is it, except because He has bid you? and to do what He bids is to obey Him, and to obey Him is to approach Him. Every act of obedience is an approach,— an approach to Him who is not far off, though He seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things which hides Him from us. He is behind this material framework; earth and sky are but a veil going between Him and us; the day will come when He will rend that veil, and show Himself to us. And then, according as we have waited for Him, will He recompense us. If we have forgotten Him, He will not know us; but "blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching … He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants" [Luke 22:37, 38.] May this be the portion of every one of us! It is hard to attain it; but it is woeful to fail. Life is short; death is certain; and the world to come is everlasting.

Mary, Virgin of Advent, teach me true obedience as I watch and wait with you. Amen.