Mary Newman on Finding Christ in the Waiting

"When I was engaged, I spent a lot of time scrolling through wedding planning forums. My now-husband and I had a longer than usual engagement. We had only been dating a little over a year when he proposed, but our engagement went on for almost 18 months. This was not either of our first choices, but the trickiness of a long-distance relationship that would only close when the wedding bells rang combined with inflexible commitments at our jobs left us, it seemed at the time, in a perpetual state of wedding planning. It was a discouraging day when I realized he had been my fiance longer than he had been my boyfriend, and we still had almost six months to go. So I scrolled through wedding planning websites and made budget spreadsheets, a part of me wondering if the day would ever really come.

"It can be difficult, sometimes, when reading the Old Testament, to sympathize with the predicament of the people of Israel before the coming of Christ. 2,000 years after the Messiah's birth, the idea of waiting for him to come seems remote at best. We read the laments and the longings of those writers as something from long ago. When David cries out 'How long, Lord? Will you hide forever? Must your wrath smolder like fire?' (Ps. 89:47) we already know the answer. Of course, God did not hide forever. Of course, Christ came."

In a recent commentary, writer Mary Newman reflected on how Jesus is always in our midst here in the waiting, here in the silence: "Whatever your present circumstances, look for him and you will find him. Now, a year from now, and at the end of time."

To access Ms. Newman's complete post, please visit:

Catholic Stand: Finding Christ in the Waiting (16 JAN 20)