The liturgical season of Advent inspires many people to think more broadly about how Christ comes into our lives. We also have a handy prayer to help us experience His presence more deeply.
This booster shot of expectancy doesn’t rely on theological gravitas. Think instead of a priest who had long adapted to New York City’s moral mayhem by learning to heed God’s ways to keep discipleship simple. Imagine this minister using dry wit to welcome Jesus, saying, now we’ve got You right where You want us!
The Heroic Witness of Father Mychal Judge
We’re told Father Mychal Judge, OFM (1933-2001), expressed this practical attitude and profound aspiration when he prayed every day:
“Lord, take me where you want me to go; let me meet who you want me to meet; tell me what you want me to say; and keep me out of your way.”
It’s likely he had said this prayer on the morning of September 11, 2001, when he began his official duties as New York Fire Department chaplain by joining the first responders after a plane crash was reported at the World Trade Center.
His immediate task was to offer prayer and assistance to the wounded and the rescuers in the North Tower’s emergency command post. Suddenly, massive debris rained down upon that space from the South Tower. Firefighters carried Judge out of the chaos, and he became the first certified fatality—victim 0001—from the day’s terror attacks.
More details of this Franciscan’s life story, available at Mychal’s Message, National Catholic Reporter, Franciscan Media, and other websites tell of the priest’s caring and charismatic traits. A Brooklyn native who was ordained in 1961, he regularly ministered to the homeless, as well as AIDS patients, at a time when fear of catching the disease stirred prejudice and reduced the ranks of caregivers.
Always eager to meet urgent needs, Father Mychal was alert to Christ as the protagonist in a grand story of God’s desire to be with the marginalized and save all His children.
That connects Mychal’s message to the alertness that Advent intends to instill in us. One might say the message helps transform the Advent journey into an adventure.
The season’s prayers, Scripture readings, and sacraments surround us during the four Sundays prior to Christmas, preparing us to appreciate the gift of redemption we’ll receive by dint of Jesus’ Incarnation.
Advent’s liturgical lens also zooms out from the Christmas crib to raise our awareness of Christ’s second coming at the end of time, another pivotal moment where the eternal and the temporal touch.
The Catholic Church sees God’s grand story everywhere. His salvific relationship with mankind is the ongoing context that helps us make sense of our smaller day-to-day joys and crosses.
Advent: Awaiting the Eternal and the Temporal
Advent stretches our spirits still more broadly. It spotlights Jesus’ coming a first time, a second time, and in the here and now. A virtuous storyteller might say Good News isn’t really news unless we observe it unfolding every day, instructively, purposefully, and truthfully.
Pope Paul VI put it this way: “The history of salvation is being accomplished in the midst of the history of the world.”
We need to experience this history taking shape in our minds, hearts, and souls, as well as in our encounters with others, with grace, and with spiritual battles against the chaos of sin. Advent ties our journey to the Mass, especially to the transubstantiation of bread and wine into Christ’s divine body and blood—as sustenance in the battles.
Human beings need the will and willpower to receive, parse, and participate in all the deep reality going on beneath the superficiality and artificiality of things our secular world calls truth. Our pilgrimage toward true happiness begins with surprise and wonder, and we can coax it along toward alertness and curiosity.
Participating in the Economy of Salvation
Recognizing our need to exercise our wills, sometimes by surrendering them, the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that Advent boosts our sense of purpose in the present, partly through patient waiting. The Church calls us to “re-read and re-live the great events of salvation history in the ‘today’ of her liturgy.”
Developing a resilient motivation demands “catechesis [to] help the faithful to open themselves to this spiritual understanding of the economy of salvation. . . .” Advent “enables us to live” the love about which we’re learning. (paragraph 1095)
The Prayerful Example of Father Mychal Judge
The prayer of Father Mychal Judge bolsters this catechesis because it helps to nudge Catholics beyond reading and hearing the Good News or merely joining together with other spectators. History is made not by spectators but by enthusiastic participants in stories being written.
Father Mychal was keenly aware of all the different ways in which God desires to save, and Christ desires to be present. These situations, whether feeding the poor, caring for AIDS patients, or ministering at Ground Zero on 9/11, require that persons “live the love about which we’re learning.” Christ’s hands and feet must truly be our own.
Salvation History Unfolding in Everyday Life
God is doing something new every day. Salvation history is full of surprise and mystery. When we sense God’s presence, sometimes in a gentle zephyr and sometimes in a thunderclap, we need to be “first responders” acting with agility
One might say Father Mychal’s expectancy showed a zeal sung about in the musical Hamilton. Observing the mysteries of the economy of salvation, this friar wanted to be “in the room where it happens”—as an active member of the supporting cast.
Humility and Curiosity in Discipleship
Rather than seeking celebrity or trying to tinker with God’s script, he asked only to know just enough about his role in any situation—where he might go, whom he should meet, what he might say.
This required great humility and curiosity about all that a great God could and would do through him and others. He also needed to stand by with all the tools in his spiritual toolkit. This meant always strengthening his robust faith, hope, and love, as well as his belief in miracles, delight in God’s mysteries, and trust in the unlimited power of prayer.
One of Father Mychal’s best friends is quoted regarding the Manhattan firehouse where he had an office for years:
“Whenever the firefighters would rush out on a call with their sirens going, Mychal, if in his room at the time, would go over to [the] window, raise his hand in blessing, and pray for the firefighters.”
This confidence in God at work, sometimes silently and unseen, can be likened to appreciating a beautiful piece of music whose score is filled with “rest” symbols for this or that instrument. It’s also akin to the ultimate guidance sought in Father Mychal’s prayer: “Keep me out of your way.”
Catechists may want to remind all the faithful that there is a difference between an active participant, discerning between times of action or waiting, and a disengaged or performative spectator. Sometimes, pious silence merely covers up a yawn or a virtue-signal shout.
Lessons for Advent: Alertness and Action
During this Advent, the Church offers many resources for building an authentic relationship with Jesus that literally and figuratively stands the test of time. We can learn from the past, present, and future, preparing our hearts to celebrate amazing moments when the temporal and eternal connect. The challenges of journeying and expectancy become opportunities for patience, humility, and profound stories.
Becoming Active Participants in Christ’s Story
With the assistance of a prayer like Father Mychal’s, let’s help each other expand our alertness into a keen sense of timing, place, people, and purpose. Suddenly, we can see salvation history happening everywhere, providing chances to participate.
Honoring Jesus as teacher and protagonist, let’s strive to be right where He wants us to be whenever He calls. The adventure of Advent will grow as we become “doers of the Word and not hearers only.” (James 1:22)
