Third Sunday of Advent
Patience is a hard virtue. Perhaps patience becomes even more difficult when we consider we must wait for Christ to come again. We must be patient, yes, but we must also be vigilant and ready for Christ to come again. Amid this waiting, there are often two temptations that can afflict us. First is the temptation to just give up waiting and try to solve everything ourselves - as if it is up to us to redeem the world. We can be drawn to utopian ways of thinking, become obsessed with politics, try to go too far in our medical, technological, and scientific advances, etc. We can focus so much on our worldly concerns and forget that we actually need Jesus. We can forget that our greatest enemy is our own sin.
The other temptation is in the opposite extreme. We can try to be so vigilant, praying and hoping for Jesus’ immediate return that we overlook that we each have a mission in this life. We forget that we have a duty to let ourselves become instruments of God’s love in the world. Just as we can be tempted to “outrun” God by trying to do everything ourselves, we can also be tempted to be stagnant, failing to make the most of our own agency and gifts.
So how can we find the right balance? By prioritizing godliness. Work for justice, not because you think you can save the world, but because justice is godly. Place all your hope in God not because you think nothing you do matters, but because you know it is ultimately God alone who saves us. This way you can be vigilant and active all at the same time.