Cardinal Tobin: Waiting for God
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
On Saturday, February 1st, the Archdiocese of Newark observed the 28th annual World Day for Consecrated Life. As noted in the article below from JerseyCatholic.org, the news site for our Archdiocese, our Consecrated Life Mass has been a beloved tradition since 1997, when it began as part of the first World Day for Consecrated Life. Today, it continues to serve as a joyful celebration for the 52 congregations of religious women and 22 congregations of religious men in our Archdiocese.
In his message for this World Day for Consecrated Life (see selection below), Pope Francis says:
Brothers and sisters, waiting for God is important for us, for our faith journey. Every day the Lord visits us, speaks to us, reveals himself in unexpected ways and, at the end of life and time, he will come. He himself exhorts us to stay awake, to be vigilant, to persevere in waiting. Indeed, the worst thing that can happen to us is to let “our spirit doze off”, to let the heart fall sleep, to anesthetize the soul, to lock hope away in the dark corners of disappointment and resignation.
This spiritual principle of waiting for God is especially significant for those of us who have already lived long and productive lives and are now in the final stages of our journey of faith. We may be tempted to look back and regret that we failed to take advantage of many opportunities for spiritual growth. Or we may be impatient to complete this earthly pilgrimage and take our place with the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints in Heaven. The Holy Father counsels us to wait for God patiently. We are given the examples of Anna and Simeon in the Gospel reading for the Presentation of the Lord (Lk 2:22–40) as assurances that God’s promises to us will be fulfilled.
Pope Francis goes on to identify two of the obstacles that prevent all of us from waiting patiently for God. These are, first of all, “neglect of the interior life,” and secondly, “adapting to a worldly lifestyle.”
A joyful heart is nourished by adoration. It comes from what the pope calls “the work of the knees and the heart” and by intense prayer that struggles and intercedes, capable of reawakening our longing for God, that initial love, that amazement we felt on the first day of our lives as Consecrated Religious, as ordained clergy, or as baptized Catholics whose vocation is to follow Jesus and proclaim His Good News to all.
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