Raising kids is not easy. I am sure that this is not an epiphany for most of you parents out there. Children can challenge a sense of who you are. Of what you hold as right or wrong. And at times force you to hide your enjoyment of watching cartoons on a Saturday morning. My wife never understood my obsession with watching “Doug” on Nickelodeon. Even if the kids were not around to watch it with me. I am guessing that watching the show while eating a bowl of Fruit Loops cereal was too far a step away from maturity for her to endure.
But it was figuring out when to discipline my children that was my biggest hurdle…especially if my Italian Mother (no, I don’t have Moms with various ethnic backgrounds. Just clarifying that she was Italian. Which is important to the story…as you will see). My Mom had a strong sense of when her son should be using a strong hand in what my kids were getting away with and made very sure to use Italian Catholic guilt to goad me into action. My instinct in many circumstances was to chill out and not force an issue when my kids did something that I may not have agreed with. Give things time to work out before stepping in. But to not appear to be weak in my Mother’s eyes, I would act prematurely and inevitably things would blow up and my kids were like, “were you taking parenting advice from Grandma again?”
Lack of patience has been one of my many weaknesses (Elise has put together an Excel spreadsheet so I have an easy reference of the rest). But it turns out that I am in good company when it comes to acting before thinking things through. In Genesis Chapter 16 we have the familiar story of Abraham and Sarah trying to conceive a child and it is not going well. They are growing weary waiting for God’s promise of a great nation made up of Abraham’s progeny to come true. So rather than waiting a bit longer, they decide it might be a good idea to have Abraham lie (Biblical word for…well…you know) with Sarah’s maid, Hagar. She conceives Ismael but a short time later Sarah conceives Isaac. Now, what to do with Ishmael since it is Isaac that is destined to carry on with Abraham’s birthright. Hagar is sent out into the desert with Ismael. She is a little perturbed, as was Ishmael, who then goes on to be the founder of the Arab people. And we know about the relationship between the Arabs and Israel to this day.
In today’s first reading from Isaiah, we hear of the prophet telling the Israelites that God hears their crying and will deliver them relief from their suffering. The Israelites had been attacked by the Assyrians and God wanted Isaiah to reassure them that all will be well. They just need to wait. And it was a lack of waiting that got them in this predicament in the first place. King Hezekiah of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) turned away from an alliance Judah had with Assyria because of his fear that Assyria was weak and in danger of falling to Egypt. So he wanted to ally with Pharaoh instead. Isaiah warned him that God did not want an alliance with a heathen nation such as Egypt. But Hezekiah’s fear and lack of trust in God prevailed leading to a partnership with an empire that would eventually not live up to its end of the bargain. The result was that Judah would eventually fall to Assyria.
Today is the feast day of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. Some of you may recall the story of St. Augustine’s early life in which he lived primarily for pleasure. His Mother, St. Monica, pleaded with her son to return to God and give up his sinful ways. These pleadings fell on deaf ears until Ambrose convinced Monica to “spend less time talking to Augustine about God and more time talking to God about Augustine.” Monica complied with Ambrose’s suggestion and prayed unceasingly for her son. Her patience paid off with Augustine becoming one of the greatest theologian’s in the Church’s history.
During this Advent season we focus on the very act of waiting. We wait for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. But waiting and being patient for God’s will is something we are called to do every day. To stop, block out the noise of the world, listen and then…wait. The hardest part of all.
