The question was posed to me, “Does a waiter wait?” So, what does a waiter wait for?
When we begin to consider the question, the obvious scene that strikes us involves a restaurant and a waiter waiting on us.
The life that you and I live requires us to wait; it is a constant process of waiting.
An example is the phone I carry around. It’s as if I would somehow be detached from civilization if I didn’t look at it every time I left a class.
Oh dear, what if they text me when I am in class and I miss it. I think if I missed a text, the earth’s rotation would stop. Well, maybe not, but it sure seems that way.
The stress levels rise quickly if that certain person doesn’t return the text I sent a minute ago, and if they don’t return it in an hour, surely they have been abducted by alien forces and will never be seen again.
We wait for grades to come out and then wait to see what classes are available to fill our schedules.
We wait to order our food and we wait for it to be prepared.
Then we wait to see if that special person notices the new cologne or perfume we are wearing.
Will she notice my new shirt or sneakers?
Will he notice that my hair has been colored?
The one thing that matters the most we sometimes overlook, because we are so overwhelmed by the daily activities and interests that the necessary focus is lost.
If we have a significant other and they’re the entire focus of our life and we use all our energy on them, the relationship will grow, mature and we will come to know the very core of our love.
But if we lose sight of God, we cannot expect to have a good healthy relationship and it will not grow; it will wither and die.
The behavior of failing to see Christ as the center of our life has real dangers attached to it.
If we allow the infinite to become finite and lose the eternal value of life, the result can lead to a wide spectrum of unhealthy choices like premarital sex, the killing of innocent persons, and not recognizing the dignity every person inherently deserves regardless of age, race, gender or sexual orientation.
The “waiting” we do to hear God’s call is accomplished in silence. “Be still and know I am God” is found as effective instruction in seeking the Lord.
The words at the Eucharistic celebration after the Lord’s Prayer – “. . . as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our savior Jesus Christ”– call to mind the method in which to wait – in “joyful” hope.
The “waiting” we experience void of Christ’s joyful hope can leave us anxious and uneasy.
Joyful then becomes a decision that we make to overcome the despair or anxiety of waiting in the world. Remember the Samaritan woman at the well?
She was waiting for water and Jesus said the water he gave was eternal. Can you imagine if we just put that in our hearts how much easier we would go about our days?
All the waiting that you and I do is like a dog chasing its tail; if we wait without placing Christ at the center of our lives, then we end up just like that dog, never fully attaining its goal.
I challenge you to listen to the words of the Mass.
It is a prayer, and the entire Mass is an offering of us to him – who is waiting too – waiting for us to respond to the love that he so freely shares.
We are all waiters and I wait for the day when we will all be one again in our Father’s house where there are many rooms.
