Waiting upon God

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God is one. Amen.

Today we begin a new year in the calendar of the world, more than two thousand years after the birth of Jesus Christ. Of course, the Church already began its new year in September. It is appropriate that we should pause and reflect on the meaning of these two ways of dating the new year, because both are important. In the world we are sinners, but with the Church we can become saints.

The Gospel today from the second chapter of the Gospel of St Luke says of the infant Jesus Christ, and I quote: “And the little child grew and became strong, being filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” That can happen to all of us as Christians and as members of the Church: we grow up; we become strong; we are filled with wisdom; and the grace of God is upon us. Notice that I said that this “can happen”—not that it always happens—because we have free will. We each decide to what extent we wish to grow up, to become strong or weak in the face of challenges in our lives, to be filled with wisdom or conspiracy theories and to be open or resistant to the grace and love of God.

In a very real sense, throughout our lives, we live in both calendars—in the world and in the Church. We learn to accept the reality that we are sinners with the possibility of becoming saints. This is not a seesaw in which our sinfulness and our saintliness are equal, as we grow older. On the contrary, this is a ladder on which we can steadily climb as we repent and leave behind our sinfulness and grow in saintliness. How? How can we climb this ladder up to the Lord of heaven and earth?

I think God says to each of us today: “Pause and pray; repent and wait; then I will direct.” Each of those four actions are essential—first, pause and pray; then repent and wait. That empowers the Lord to direct us in the paths that He has prepared for us to travel through the forests of worldly challenges. Psalm 25—or 24 in the Septuagint translation—offers us helpful guidance. The opening verses of this psalm set out a goal we all share, and I quote: “To thee, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in thee I trust, let me not be put to shame.” St Augustine wrote of these verses, “O my God, I have been brought to this point of bodily weakness because I trusted in myself…. But now I trust in you, so let me be shamed no longer,” concluded St Augustine.

Of these same verses on trusting in God, a fifth century theologian, Arnobius the Younger wrote, and I quote: “From all earthly profit, from all the things of this world that seem good, [raise] my spirit, let me come to you, Lord; I have been lifted up, now not trusting in money, or house, or business, or military might or in my abilities, but I search while trusting in you, so that I will not be ashamed when I depart from this body…. I have lifted my spirit to you so that my spirit may dwell on good things,” concluded Arnobius.

As we learn to trust in the Lord more and more, this has a big impact on our lives. Verses 8 and 9 of this Psalm 25 read, and I quote: “Good and upright is the LORD; therefore, he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble His way.” St Augustine writes of these verses: “[God] will teach his ways not to those who want to run on ahead, as if they could rule themselves better than he can, but to those who do not strut about with their heads in the air or dig in their heels, when his easy yoke and light burden are set on them,” concluded St Augustine. In other words, it would be good for each of us to stop making New Year’s Resolutions too quickly. We can then stop trying to grow stronger in our own limited strength and pray and focus on how the Lord wants us to live in the coming year.

The final verses of Psalm 25 include the prayer: “May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for thee.” Of these verses St Augustine wrote, and I quote: “Redeem your people, O God, whom you have prepared for the vision of yourself. Redeem them from all the troubles they endure, not only from without but also from within,” concluded St Augustine. These “troubles” that we all endure are often “within” ourselves because our consciences are guiding us into “integrity and uprightness” along the paths that the Lord has prepared for each of us. Of course, we want our walk to be smooth; and we are often impatient. However, sometimes the Lord is waiting for other people to listen to Him, even when we are ready to move ahead, because He is drawing not only each of us to Himself, but many others among our families, our friends and others for whom we can pray.

In the final lines of today’s gospel from the second chapter of St Luke, Jesus Christ has left St Joseph and the Theotokos and gone—without their knowledge—to teach in the Temple. After three days of searching they find Him; and He says to them, “Did you not know that I must be in the house of My Father? And they did not understand what he had said to them …. [but] His mother treasured all [His] sayings in her heart. And Jesus progressed in wisdom and age and favour before God and men,” concludes today’s gospel. We too will not always understand what Jesus Christ is saying to us, but we can progress with him “in wisdom and age and favour before God and” our fellow human beings.

And so, we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always now and ever and unto the ages of ages.              Father Emmanuel Kahn