BARROW: Veni, Veni Emmanuel - The Advent season is one of waiting for love

As a child and altar server many years ago, the song “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” was and remains one of my favorites to hear during the Season of Advent. If this song was chosen as the opening hymn during the procession of ministers at Mass, the movement up the aisle seemed a bit more reverent; it was not a hurried pace, and it was deliberately slow. If I carried the processional crucifix, in some way, I felt as if I helped to set the tone of bringing Jesus to the people.

As I grew up and matured in my faith, the meaning of the words to the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” began to take shape in my life more profoundly. It began with helping me see the Advent Season as a time of waiting and hoping. I waited and hoped that the love of God promised to the exiled people of Israel, and those of us grafted to the shoot of Jesse, would be made manifest in my heart.

In some way, we all are waiting for something to happen or perhaps hoping for someone to do something. We experience waiting in virtually every aspect of our lives. Perhaps future parents are waiting and hoping for the birth of their first child. There may be an engaged couple waiting and hoping for the moment to exchange vows in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. The transitional deacon waits with the hopeful expectation for the anointing of his hands with the oil of Sacred Chrism to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ.

The Advent season is undoubtedly one of waiting for love. The love we await is the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Feast of the Nativity, the third joyful mystery of the Rosary, is the culmination of God’s love for all mankind entering humanity. It is the announcement of the angel to the shepherds keeping watch over their flock, today in the city of David, a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord (Lk 2:11).

You see, friends, love is a gift. Tis the season to wait and hope for the love of God to come!

Advent love as we know it and how we live it must be a reflection of the Greatest Commandment given to us by Christ Jesus when he said, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (Jn 15:9, 12) Whatever we are waiting and hoping for should be united with the Season of Advent in some way.

One way to unite our waiting and hoping is as a prayer:

Most gracious and loving Father, if it be your most Holy will, unite that which we wait and hope for to this season of Advent so that in Christ Jesus, Emmanuel, our lives may become more intertwined with his life, death, and resurrection. As we prepare to celebrate his birth and look forward to his coming again in Glory, help us to remember that the reason we have this season is because you love us more than our senses can fathom. All of us!

Through the intercession of Mary, Our Mother of Mercy, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas in response to the Angel Gabriel, let your will be done to us according to your word. 

Doris M. Barrow III is the Campus Minister of the Newman Center at Texas Southern University in the Office of Young Adult and Campus Ministry.