Waiting

After the fall of our first parents, our loving God promised a Saviour to the fallen humanity in order to restore the lost Divine Life to them. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3,15). St. Paul write: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Gal. 4, 4) but the humanity had to wait 4000 years before the fulfilment of God’s promise at Paradise. In the Liturgical year of the Church, the faithful are exhorted to wait for the coming of the Lord, to celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of our Saviour, preparing for four weeks.

In order to prepare the humanity for the coming of the Saviour, John the Baptist was sent who exhorted the people, “Repent, for the kingdom of God has come near”. Our Lord and Saviour who was born in history, wants to be born in human hearts. But we need to ‘prepare the way’ as exhorted by the Baptist. Especially when we are preparing to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, the Church wants that we, the faithful take this message seriously. St. John testifies “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (Jn.1, 14). During this season of preparation for the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, we are to strive to make this Word to become flesh in our lives. Every true follower of Christ needs to put an effort so that the Word can find its home in our hearts, in our lives. The Lord comes into the life of everyone who is ready to welcome Him wholeheartedly and is eagerly waiting for Him. So there is a great significance in our preparation for Christmas in these 4 weeks. Let us not be preoccupied and busy with only the external celebrations, but also take interest in our spiritual preparation, wanting to make our Lord ‘feel at home’ in our lives . “He comes, He comes, and He ever comes”. But only when we are waiting for Him with due preparation, ‘making the rough ways of our lives smooth, making His paths straight’ , we really can make Him feel at home in our hearts and lives. He is searching for a place to be born. Can we come out of our unforgiveness and bitterness, our unwillingness to reconcile with people, our self- righteousness and pride, unwillingness to accept correction, our seeking for vain glory, ;our life of prayerlessness and so on so that we can prepare a place for Him to be born? “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me” (Rev. 3,20). Each time we honestly try to make ‘the Word become flesh’ in our lives, we give meaning for the celebration of Christmas. A blessed Christmas to all.

Mary Pereira