It is said that patience is a virtue. Many of us find that virtue difficult to practice.

 

For example, we get annoyed when a driver does not immediately accelerate when the traffic light turns green or if a driver actually observes the speed limit on the Garden State Parkway.

 

Our blood pressure increases as we wait in our doctor’s office as our appointment time passes with no explanation or apology.

 

We grumble to ourselves as the person in line before us in the bank approaches the teller with multiple business transactions and then requests three certified checks.

 

We lose patience as we wait for friends whom we have helped in the past to finally live up to the resolutions they have made to improve their lives.

 

Most of us do not like waiting. Yet the readings for this Third Sunday of Advent are all about waiting.

 

In our First Reading (Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10), Isaiah presents a glorious, hopeful vision to the Jews in exile in Babylon who were longing to return home. He proclaims that their waiting will end. God will save his people, and their coming back home will even cause the parched land to “blossom with abundant flowers.” They “will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy.” Their waiting will not be in vain.

 

In our Gospel (Matthew 11:2-11), we hear how John the Baptist seems to be losing patience with Jesus. John sends his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is come, or should we look for another?” John seems tired of waiting for Jesus to clearly reveal himself as the promised Messiah, the one John himself had recognized at his baptism in the Jordan.

 

In our Second Reading (James 5:7-10), James tells his fellow Christians to “be patient” as they wait for the coming of the Lord in glory. Just as a farmer waits patiently for his crop to produce a harvest, so they are to make their hearts firm and wait patiently for the Lord’s return.

 

All three Advent readings speak of waiting: waiting for God to free his people from exile, waiting for Jesus to reveal himself as the Messiah, and waiting for Jesus to come again in the glory.

These readings and this Advent season remind us that waiting comes with faith. God acts in his own time and not according to our needs or desires. After all, God has an abundance of time in which to carry out his will.

 

We may not like waiting for things to happen, for people to change, or for God to act, but waiting is unavoidable.

 

We might also consider that as we wait, often impatiently, that God is also waiting. God is waiting for us to turn away from selfishness and sin and grow into the good and holy people he made us to be. Fortunately for us, patience is a virtue that God practices!

 

© 2025 Rev. Thomas Iwanowski