Scripture Reflection: First Sunday of Advent . . .

Things Take the Time They Take -|Nov 25, 2025|Columns, Fr. Joe Juknialis, Scripture Readings

Scripture Reflection

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Isaiah 2:1-5
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:37-44

We wait for life to make its mark, and time then etches itself upon our lives. When I was 4 years old, I couldn’t wait for Christmas to come. Each year, too, it was for my birthday to come around that I waited, all so I could grow up to be like everyone else. Once school began, I could hardly wait for vacation time, and then I waited for graduation, and finally for the freedom to be on my own. Isn’t that how it was with you too? We wait for life to do what life always does at its own pace.

Over the years, I’ve spent a fair amount of time in such a way — waiting to be old enough to get a driver’s license, for the Packers to win a Super Bowl, for the wonderful taste of summer when winter seemed to lock us all into a deep freeze, for political winds to shift and bring in the fresh air of new hope for the future. In some years, it was waiting for a new car, and in other years for a new parish. Sometimes, it was waiting for a friend to come, and other times waiting in a doctor’s office while watching everyone else being called ahead of me. And sometimes it’s been waiting for God to show up, though mostly I’ll admit I wasn’t sure if I’d know what that could or would look like — only something different than how I was at that moment, I presumed.

If Advent is supposed to be a time of waiting, then I’d have to say that in so many ways my whole life has been an advent of one sort or another — not always waiting for God, but sometimes for that, too.

And so it’s been all those somethings that I’ve spent time waiting for that have in their own time come to pass — from a child’s dreams for Christmas to a grownup’s wondering about God and a scattering of much else in between.

The prophet and poet Isaiah says, “In days to come … they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” We wait for peace, too, though if we’re honest about it, we wonder if it’s ever really going to come.

Mary Oliver, another poet from another time, mused about all such waiting in a very brief poem that’s over almost before it begins. The poem is titled “Don’t Worry.”

“Things take the time they take. Don’t worry, How many roads did St. Augustine follow before he became St. Augustine?”

It’s true. Things take the time they take.

If you know anything about St. Augustine, you know he walked his share of roads. He tasted life — from the boyhood thrill of stealing pears out of someone’s orchard to the grownup thrill of falling in love and the daunting thrill of becoming a parent. His were many roads and paths and back alleyways — some forked, some with dead ends and most without knowing the ultimate destination, until, like all of us, he found himself arriving at one place or another, only to begin again. Things take the time they take for us to become who we are called to be.

As much as we wait for life to come to us, the truth is that life happens to us as we’re busy about our waiting. And if so with life, so also with God who happens as we’re busy doing other things, though mostly without our noticing. Some of us are captured by it all and some of us are left behind, as the Gospel this week suggests, but God does happen in our rummaging about, woven in amidst all the distractions that make demands upon our time.

For most of us, it is the silence that stirs us to notice. Sometimes it is the forced silence as when we are laid low by illness. At other times, it is the silence that comes masked as boredom tempting us to flee, and yet again it may be the silence of 3 a.m. as we lie awake unable to sleep.

Most often, the waiting for God to come does take on the cloak of silence. It will capture you whether you welcome it or not. So then sit with it, wait with it, make friends with it. It is holy, and because we become like those with whom we spend time, then it too will make you holy. Things take the time they take, and amidst it all God happens. Be at peace.

For Reflection:

• At this point in your life, what is it you are waiting for?
• How might God be there waiting for you?

About the Author: Fr. Joe Juknialis

Fr. Joe Juknialis has been writing Scripture columns for the Catholic Herald for maybe the past 25 years, as best as he can remember. He is currently a senior priest of the archdiocese, retired and living at Old St. Mary Parish in downtown Milwaukee, where he helps out weekends at the East Side parishes. He can be reached at jjjpax@gmail.com.

 

Amy Grant - Breath Of Heaven (Mary's Song) (Lyric Video)

A blessing for these Advent days.

 

PREPARE

A Blessing for Advent

Strange how one word

will so hollow you out.

But this word

has been in the wilderness

for months.

Years.

This word is what remained

after everything else

was worn away

by sand and stone.

It is what withstood

the glaring of sun by day,

the weeping loneliness of

the moon at night.

Now it comes to you

racing out of the wild,

eyes blazing

and waving its arms,

its voice ragged with desert

but piercing and loud

as it speaks itself

again and again:

Prepare, prepare.

It may feel like

the word is leveling you,

emptying you

as it asks you

to give up

what you have known.

It is impolite

and hardly tame,

but when it falls

upon your lips

you will wonder

at the sweetness,

like honey

that finds its way

into the hunger

you had not known

was there.

—Jan Richardson

from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

 

https://www.janrichardson.com/

 

Advent Sit Meditation | Sunday, November 30 | Center for Action and Cont...

Remembering December 2, 1980 . . .

 

Remembering . . . never to forget!

The four women, all of whom were experienced mission workers, to show that in some ways they knew the danger facing them, but their faith and commitment drove them to stay in El Salvador anyway:

“If we abandon them when they are suffering the cross, how can we speak credibly about the resurrection?” -Maura Clarke, M.M.

“Most of us feel we would want to stay here.… We wouldn’t want to just run out on the people.” -Dorothy Kazel, O.S.U.

“Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could, except for the children.” -Jean Donovan

“I truly believe that I should be here, and I can’t even tell you why.… All I can share with you is that God’s palpable presence has never been more real.” -Ita Ford, M.M.

• Lord, make me your witness. In this world of darkness, let my light shine.
• In this world of lies, let me speak the good news of truth.
• In this world of hate and fear, let me radiate your love.
• In this world of despair, let me spread hope.
• In this world of systemic injustice and institutionalized evil, let me promote justice and goodness.
• In this world of sadness and sorrow, let me bring joy.
• In this world of cruelty and condemnation, let me show your compassion.
• In this world of vengeance and retaliation, let me offer your mercy and reconciliation.
• In this world of war, let me serve your gift of peace.
• In this world of violence, make me a teacher and apostle of your nonviolence.
• In this world of death, let me proclaim the new life of resurrection.
• Help me to witness to the resurrection of Jesus by loving my enemies, showing compassion, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, serving the poor, liberating the oppressed, resisting war, beating plowshares, and disarming my heart and the world.
• In the name of the risen, nonviolent Jesus, Amen

Taken from:
You Will be My Witnesses:
Saints, Prophets and Martyrs
By John Dear

An Advent Poem

There Was a Time

There was a time when there was no time,
When darkness reigned as king,
When a formless void was all that there was
in the nothingness of eternity,
When it was night.
But over the void and over the night Love watched.
There was a time when time began.
It began when Love spoke.

Time began for light and life, for splendor and grandeur.
Time began for seas and mountains, for flowers and birds.
Time began for the valleys to ring with the songs of life,
and for the wilderness to echo with the wailing of wind
and howling of animals.
And over the earth, Love watched.

There was a time when time began to be recorded.
A time when Love breathed and a new creature came to life.
A new creature so special that it was in the image and likeness of Love
Of Love who is God.
And so man was born and the dawn of a new day shone on the world.
And over man, Love watched.

But there came a time when the new day faded.
A time when man who was like God tried to be God.
A time when the creature challenged the creator.
A time when man preferred death to life and darkness to light.
And so the new day settled into twilight.
And over the darkness, Love watched.

 

There was a time of waiting in the darkness.
A time when man waited in the shadows,
And all creation groaned in sadness.

There was waiting for Love to speak again—  for Love to breathe again.

And kings and nations and empires rose and faded in the shadows.
And Love waited and watched.

Finally, there came a time when Love spoke again.
A Word from eternity--a Word
Spoken to a girl who belonged to a people not known by the world
Spoken to a girl who belonged to a family not known by her people
To a girl named Mary.
And all creation waited in hushed silence for the girl's answer.
And Mary spoke her yes.
And Love watched over Mary.

And so there came a time when Love breathed again
When Love breathed new life into Mary's yes.
And a new day dawned for the World
A day when light returned to darkness, when life returned to dispel death
And so a day came when Love became man--a mother bore a child.
And Love watched over Love--a Father watched His Son.

And, lastly, there came a time when you and I became a part of time.
Now is the time that you and I wait.
Now we wait to celebrate what the world waited for.
And as we wait to celebrate what was at one time, we become a part of that time
A time when a new dawn and a new dream and a new creation began for humankind.
And as a part of time, Love waits and Love watches over us.

Fr. Joseph Breighner ~The Catholic Review,                11-28-80

 

Waiting Time . . .

 Advent 

By Lucy Rose Johns

We are waiting for these aches and pains to be healed.      

We are waiting for the hunger within to be satisfied.                             

We are waiting for love to touch us.

We are waiting to be understood and really listened to.

We are waiting for decisions to be easy.

We are waiting to be inspired to love unlovable people.

We are waiting for financial cares to be resolved.

We are waiting for serenity to accept the things we cannot change.

We are waiting for courage to change the things we can.

We are waiting for wisdom to know the difference.

We are waiting to be appreciated.

We are waiting for justice.

We are waiting for the answers.

We are waiting for the dawn of a new day.

We are waiting for things to get easier.

We are waiting for a time of rest, peace, quiet.

We are waiting for patience.

We are waiting and waiting.

We are waiting

In joyful hope for the coming of the Lord!