Pastor's Reflection - December 7, 2025

Waiting in Hope: The Heart of Advent

As we step deeper into the season of Advent, the Church invites us to rediscover one of its most essential themes: waiting. But this waiting is not passive or empty; it is an act of hope. Advent teaches us how Christians are meant to live in time: alert, expectant, and confident that God is at work, even when His presence remains hidden.

Jesus uses many parables to show us what this hopeful waiting looks like: servants watching for the master’s return, virgins keeping their lamps lit for the bridegroom, farmers sowing seed and trusting that a harvest will come. Each image points to a truth at the heart of our faith: God is on the move in our world, and our task is to remain awake to His coming.

In many ways, our entire human experience is marked by waiting. Children wait to grow up, adults wait for success or stability, and in the later years of life we often long simply for peace or rest. And yet, there often comes a moment when we realize that our hopes have been too small. We may have placed our hearts in careers, accomplishments, or milestones, only to discover that they do not fully satisfy our deepest longing.

Even more clearly, illness or hardship reveals us as people who wait. We wait for healing, for relief, for good news. But not all waiting is the same. When time feels empty and when we can see nothing meaningful in the present, waiting becomes almost unbearable. But when each moment carries a sense of purpose, even unseen or unfinished, then waiting transforms into something life-giving. It becomes anticipation, even strength.

This is precisely what Advent seeks to give us: a way of waiting that is filled with meaning because God is already near. Christ’s gifts are not limited to some distant future. He is present now, quietly and humbly, speaking through Scripture, through the rhythm of the Church year, through the saints, through the beauty of creation, and through the small events of daily life. We can bring Him our questions, our impatience, our suffering, and know He hears us.

If God is truly with us, then no moment is wasted. No season of life, whether illness, old age, or apparent stillness, is ever without value. Even when we can do nothing more than endure, that moment can become a place of growth, ripening, and grace. Christian hope does not escape from time; it fills time with meaning. It teaches us to treasure the present because God’s presence makes every moment capable of bearing fruit for eternity.

As we continue through Advent, may we learn to wait as Christians wait: not anxiously or aimlessly, but with a hope rooted in the God who has already drawn near and who promises to come again.

In Christ,

Fr. James Northrop, Pastor