Joyful Anticipation of Self-Giving
It is amazing how little children almost always seem to “get it right”. Their unadulterated innocence and their passion for joy often enable them to experience the mysteries of life in a richness and with an imagination too often buried in us adults.
Our children, and grandchildren, have been preparing for Christmas for quite awhile. Advent is the preparation time for us adults – our time to prepare for the Coming of Jesus on Christmas. Preparation, both for our children and for us, is not just a time of simple “waiting”. No, there is so much more to it than that. It is a time of active, joyful anticipation!
“Active, joyful anticipation!” Just what do those words mean? And what does active, joyful anticipation look like? Sometimes it’s hard to translate expectations of behavior such as this to specific actions. Well, this year the Lord gave me a real clear example of just what active, joyful anticipation looks like in action.
We have our grandson, Sammy, in California. We spent last week-end with him. Well, for at least the last three weeks, Sammy has been calling his Grammy almost every day. He knew we were coming, but he just could not wait quietly! He needed to talk, to connect, to anticipate!
He did that almost daily over the phone with his Grammy. Sammy was clearly in active, joyful anticipation of seeing and being with his Grammy and Papa, his uncles, and his cousins. He almost could not contain his excitement. In fact, one day while riding in the car he said to his Mom, “Momma, I think I can smell Grammy, all the way from Nebraska!” Now that is active, joyful anticipation!
Once we understand what active, joyful anticipation looks like, we have a better chance to replicate it in our own lives, to recapture that richness and imagination we also had as children.
For us adults, our anticipation takes the form of engaged prayer and rich meditation. Not just rote prayer and casual mediation, but prayer and meditation having the same joyful and anticipatory delight that filled Sammy’s talks with his Grammy. He had questions; he had requests; he had plans; he could even smell it in the air! We knew that he deeply was looking forward to us arriving. Now, that is what Jesus should sense from us coming out of our Advent preparation.
So, I do hope you had many opportunities for rich prayer this Advent Season. And, if for some reason you did not, you still have this one last day. It is never too late to prepare for Jesus! Take time in these last few hours to tell Jesus just how much you look forward to his coming!
If you do this, your hearts will feel very much like Mary’s on that day she left for the hills of Judah. Like our Blessed Mother, we will not be able to keep solely for ourselves this Joy that resides in our hearts. Joy must always be shared! Joy must be communicated! Mary went without delay to communicate her joy to her cousin Elizabeth. She now invites us to spread that joy. Joy is both the blessing of Advent and the gift of Christmas!
True joy flourishes through Self-Giving. The Joy of receiving is fleeting; the Joy of giving is long-lasting. Look at the examples of Self-Giving before us. Mary gave her body so that the son of God could become incarnate. Jesus gave his body so that we could become sons and daughters of God.
God used the body of Mary to prepare a body for his Son. Today, God uses our bodies, consecrated through Eucharist, to continue his self-giving to His people. Jesus continues to touch, heal, and enrich human life through us. Just as He did with Our Blessed Mother, He seeks a living dwelling place. A dwelling in each of us through which His Self-Giving can continue and his Joy can reside!
During this Christmas season, with family and friends gathering, there will be many opportunities for our Self-Giving. Perhaps it is a matter of taking a few extra minutes to be present individually to the elderly. Perhaps it means playing awhile with the children. Perhaps it means simply helping to clean up and do dishes. However the opportunity for self-giving presents itself, it always is an opportunity for blessing.
And in Self-Giving, we find ourselves blessed with Joy. And we can transmit this joy to others, simply. It can be done with a smile, with a kind gesture, with some small help, and most of all it can be done through forgiveness. Let us create joy though our own personal self-giving this last day of Advent. Then on Christmas, we will be prepared to give this joy as gift to others. A gift that will be returned to us!
The time is near! Let us “talk to God” through our prayer and meditation for a few more hours. Between now and Christmas, I challenge you to “smell Him in the air”. During these next few hours let us actively and joyfully anticipate the coming of our God! Let us take on the joy and excitement of children. May this be the resolution that we all make together this morning.
Come, Lord Jesus, Come!