Advent is the season of waiting, expectancy, repentance and joy. We wait, and long for the promise of Christ's coming, into our hearts and into our world.

The season marks the beginning of a new liturgical year, even as it coincides with the end of the calendar year. In its own way, the season inclines us to look back and to look forward with a certain longing.

We celebrate the season, more often than not, desiring change, something new. And this is so whether we are considering our individual lives, national life or the world scene.

We long for a change in circumstances, as we look to the future, but the time of waiting itself, difficult as it might be, is also a time of longing.

However we look at it, this longing is gift. It is an opportunity for God to do great things if we allow him and if we cooperate with him. In our busyness, and when all is going well, it is easy to push God to the side. Longing forces us to reckon with God.

In the first reading for this the Fourth Sunday of Advent, a pretentious David believes he is the one who is fully in charge, not only of his life, but he also dares to take charge of God himself. So, the Lord has to set the record straight.

He tells the prophet Nathan: “ Go and tell my servant David … I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be leader of my people Israel … I have been with you … I have cut off all your enemies … I will provide a place for my people Israel ” (Sam 7: 8-10).

Becoming more available

Longing could force us, also, to dig deep within ourselves. It is the time when skills and talents and our creative abilities as a people, through God's grace, have the finest opportunity to blossom; when skills we did not know we had come to the fore.

In the past year of much crime and violence, here at home, we have also seen a flourishing of the arts, in all areas. We have been reminded of our strengths and of a God who has not abandoned his people to their own devices.

From art exhibitions to theatre, from classical forms of music to the contemporary jazz scene, we have seen them all in the past weeks. Open Studio Days at CCA7, the finals of the Secondary School Drama Festival, the Brown Cotton Theatre, the Best Village Finals have all been part of the fare.

The profusion of art, dance and drama reminds us of how gifted we are as a people, but it points to an even deeper reality of God's presence among us.

We have been reminded that we have been created in the image and likeness of God for whom “nothing is impossible.” What if we were available to God in all areas of national life? What could the Lord not do in us and with us?

Archbishop Gilbert in his homily at the cathedral on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception December 8 (see Front) led us to see that the way by which we can hear from God, the way to become even more available, is by living more deeply the Christian life, in the new year.