Am I living my life or just passing the time? "Of course, whose life is what, right?" It is "Gaudete Sunday", the Sunday of rejoicing. A day when we rejoice in anticipation. It is interesting, as this time may even seem unnecessary to many today!
Waiting for something is almost not natural today! I remember when, as a child, the computer would turn on for 5-10 minutes, then stand up, whereas today even a minute of waiting is a lot, so our computers are in sleep mode. Today, it is almost not natural to have to wait, so if we are forced to do so, we only think of a bad thing to be denied. Today, however, the Church invites us to rejoice in waiting.
What does this day tell us? Perhaps his first message is that waiting time can be important and meaningful. That we can learn from this, that it can also build us. As long as I don't have everything, it still feels good to see that our lack is being fulfilled.
In Advent, we remember the long-ago messianic waiting, but with the joy that we have actually been redeemed, that we are already living beyond the mystery of the incarnation. Waiting for the second coming of Jesus, of course…
Many people associate the delay with the frontal lobe, the full development of which takes place around the age of 18, in the best case scenario. By then, as healthy people, we learn to deal with the unsatisfaction of our needs. As well as how our emotions should not be expressed immediately. This is an absolutely important thing, because without it, we start at a serious disadvantage in marriage, friendship, workplace, or any human relationship, or in relation to the things in our life, to ourselves.
Let's just imagine that without this we get into such a simple situation that the other person gets up on the wrong foot, whatever, let's say because of the air pressure. This trivial thing, if I can't delay my needs or control my emotions, quickly turns into an unsolvable conflict in which I just shout my own truth, without even once really hearing what my partner wanted to say to me . "You obviously don't know anyone, do you?" A deeper message of this day is that it is a wonderful thing that we can wait! That we can delay and manage the gaps in our lives. That you don't have to satisfy everything immediately.
What generous and normal things we will be able to do with them! Suddenly, we can see the beauty of when something is not our priority, when space opens up for the other person in our lives.
And somewhere here is the essence of the whole thing: we can use it to understand where our place is in the world. It also helps you slow down in a rush and helps you appreciate the moment and the other person.
It is interesting how much the concept of "carpe diem", that is, when we want to make the most of every moment, erodes the appreciation of time and the "here and now". Many times it turns into an unbridled rush where we want everything to be ours, so in the end we lose everything and are left alone. On the other hand, appreciating waiting opens us to a calm and meaningful life, in which everything falls into place: we already appreciate the time we can spend together and the other person, including their shortcomings.
Christmas carries the message for us to appreciate human existence, but also to see the greatness of God in it. So when we learn to appreciate all the beauty of the "here and now", we suddenly come into contact with the One who created and raised all of this. This is how all of this brings us to the message of Christmas: God came so that we could be in a relationship, and he took the time to make the incarnation happen at the right time and place. We could even put it this way: the journey will also be important, not just the goal we want to reach. Let's learn to wait well and find joy in it, so that we can reach our real goals!
Father Miklós Molnár / vasarnap.hu
Featured image: katolikus.hu
