April 11/Monday of Holy Week
Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! ~ Ps 27.14
Have you ever thought about how much time you spend waiting? Biding time in a TSA or grocery store line, checking the status of a college or job application, awaiting the MRI report or the baby’s arrival or the wedding day. And now, as we grope our way out of COVID to discern the still-hazy shapes of a new normalcy, waiting has intensified, with supply chain delays, understaffed restaurants and retail establishments, long lines at airports, and more. But waiting is endemic to the human condition: spiritual beings though we may be, we live in time, hearing the tick of the clock, straining to hear its tock, ever oriented towards what comes next. How, then, might we conduct ourselves given that we are, in a very real sense, trapped in time? We can wait impatiently — fuming, pacing, angry. We can wait idly, twiddling our thumbs and numbing our anxiety with Hulu or Bacardi. We can wait with dread, gripped by a pessimistic belief that all shall not be well. Or we can embrace the uncertainties of the future with hope and trust, as our psalmist counsels us. In Hebrew, the verb qvh, “to wait,” also means “to hope.” As the 20th-century French Jesuit theologian and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. . . Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.” On the other side of time lives eternity; on the other side of death lies love. Let us, then, wait in joyful hope, bolstered by trust in God’s promises.
Almighty and eternal God, Give me the grace to wait with strength and courage throughout these dark days. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041122.cfm
To hear “Wait for the Lord” from the Taizé Community, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7GexIvX8HU
