The season of Advent begins on Sunday, and it is synonymous with waiting. Yet it is also a time of fulfillment. Can both be possible at the same time?

God’s promise of a savior was made to Adam and Eve at their fall. They had disrupted their relationship with God, contaminating it for all their offspring. God then spends the generations documented in the Old Testament as preparation for the Savior, His Son. While some may view this time as God withholding His promise, He wasn’t causing the delay for no reason. The people needed to learn how to be a people of God, albeit very imperfectly. This is the first sense of Advent, waiting for a promise, yet being prepared for the same. It is an active waiting, and to some degree, it is the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise.

Many people may equate Advent with the gestation of Jesus in Mary’s womb. Thankfully we only have to wait for four Sundays and a few days rather than the normal nine months that Mary did. Yet here again is both waiting and fulfillment. No longer was there preparation of the Israelites, the Savior was conceived and growing in Mary. The angel’s announcement and Mary’s consent put the promise into action. But there was still waiting needed: waiting for a child to be born and waiting for a child to grow to maturity. 

When Jesus started his mission work, it too was both a time of waiting and a time of fulfillment. People were being healed, their souls were being saved one by one. Yet the Savior would need to die for all, and not just die, but resurrect as well. That would be the complete fulfillment and that would be after three years of traveling around the Judean countryside preaching and teaching. 

The Advent season commemorates the seasons of waiting and fulfillment in the past, as well as preparing for the current Christmas season, and the return of Jesus at the end of time. Our activities should be a healthy mix of pondering and preparing for all three. It is comforting to consider that God does not leave us up to our own devices during our waiting. As God gave the most excellent Gift of His only Son in order that we can have a relationship with Him, we are called to put into practice the love God has for all His children, by sacrificing a bit of our time, talent, or treasure with those in need of our help. We don’t just stand idly by waiting for December 25, instead we seek to grow our relationship with God by seeking out quiet time with Him, celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation, and correcting bad habits that continue to keep us from doing God’s will.

As we focus our attention on the single, purple candle lit in the Advent wreath this weekend, let us open our hearts to both patience in waiting, and a quick response to the opportunities that will prepare our souls for Jesus’ coming.