Waiting: Bliss or Bane? A Deep and Practical Reflection for the Season of Advent

  •   Wed, Dec 03 2025
  •   By Fr Ajay Nelson D'Silva SJ

December 3, 2025

Waiting is a challenge every time. Even if we are driving in a traffic jam, we are waiting for medical results or academic results, we are caring for the little piece of the relationship that is not broken and we are looking for life’s crossroads—waiting is quite often a burden we would like to escape from. It shows our limitations, it does not allow our desire for control to be satisfied and it puts us face to face with our fragility. And yet, in this state of affairs, the Church offers us a whole season—Advent—whose core is this very act of waiting. Why? Because if we are to look at it from the spiritual point of view, waiting is not merely a passive act of endurance but a sacred process where, through grace, a new life is quietly born. 

The Bible gives us a rich picture of holy waiting.

Israel waited a long and hard time for the Messiah. As the people lived through various hardships (exile, wandering, and silence), they kept the hope alive. Mary waited in awe, faith, and trembling uncertainty for the birth of Jesus. Joseph waited in silence, trusting God’s guidance that when reason failed and fear was loud, God was coming through silently. Their waiting was not celebrated with instant rewards. It was dirty, stretching, and uncomfortable—still it became the ground where God performed His greatest miracles. Advent tells us this remarkable fact: God very often works most powerfully in the very areas we want to hurry through. In the world that worships speed, efficiency, and instant results, Advent is like a gentle but firm contradiction—a reminder that God’s most beautiful works take time, are done slowly, and go unnoticed. So how can we turn our waiting into a process that is spiritually fruitful, emotionally enriching, and practically life-changing? 

1. Waiting indeed slows us down but it helps us to see really well.

The lives of people nowadays are very much in a rush. The constant activities and the noise that comes with them together with notifications, deadlines, and the frenzy of December do not allow people to quite reflect on life. Advent is telling us to "Slow down." The lighting of an Advent candle, meditating on God's Word, or the very simple taking a mindful breath may draw us back to the moment and help us recognize the very subtle presence of God. So, we can say that slowing down is not about doing less; it is about seeing more. 

2. Waiting clearly shows our hidden desires that we covered with our impatience.

Waiting is still a situation when the first reaction to it is annoyance but irritation is as if it were only scratching the surface. We do not like it when it takes too long to get what we want but in fact, we and even God might not know what lies behind our impatience. God gets close to us in the very difficult habitats of the human heart that we manage to expose. 

3. Waiting is a lesson in trusting God's timing.

Each one of us has a prayer or prayers that are still unanswered or that have been answered in a way that was not expected. Advent is that period of time that God is not late, but He seldom comes according to our calendar and usually, it is right after the world has gone through the "fullness of time" waiting like for Christ's birth. Our very lives are evolving in a time that is not hasty but a divine rhythm that is far more understanding than those coming from our impatient expectations. What is perceived as a delay could, in fact, be the time for the preparation. 

4. Waiting is not a passive act—it is a process of development.

Waiting is a remarkably powerful thing; it is the season to get better at communication, lessen what makes life difficult and what weighs us down, be pleasantly surprising to others deliberately with little things, and fortify the secret place in our spirits where Jesus longs to reside. This is how waiting molds us. We are not just waiting for the coming of Christ; we are waiting with a heart that is being prepared to accept Him. 

5. Waiting revives hope—hope that looks past the apparent.

Hope is not merely an optimistic attitude towards life. It is the unwavering faith that God is already acting in the hidden. Advent sharpens our sight to see grace in the most common situations—during quiet mornings, eating simple meals together, having conversations, and even in times of struggle. Hope educates us to expect God—even when we cannot yet articulate Him. 

6. Waiting expands the spirit.

The Saints frequently refer to waiting as the expanse of the heart to contain more of God. The more a heart waits, the more it gradually learns to expand—it becomes deeper, softer, and more trusting. Just like soil that must be rejuvenated before it can produce, the waiting soul gets ready to receive God's transformation, which is He who sows the seeds of change in hearts and waits for their time to blossom. 

At last…

Waiting turns to be an experience of joy when we no longer consider it as a waste of time but instead a holy time—a moment where God works in us, cures us, cleanses us, and prepares us for the future. The question is not different from the deeper one, Life simply puts us into the waiting position; will we let our waiting change us in the way that our wishes are reshaped, our hope is made stronger, and we are given the ability to trust the God who communicates through silence and in His own time?” This Advent, we should wait to pray, be patient and full of hope. The One we are waiting for is already Emmanuel—God with us—moving in silence through the shaded, dark corners of our lives, bestowing grace in ways that are not yet apparent. Let us meet in our waiting.

 

 
By Fr Ajay Nelson D'Silva SJ
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Title: Waiting: Bliss or Bane? A Deep and Practical Reflection for the Season of Advent



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