We are a results oriented people. We want to see results. We expect results. It is not enough to just talk to us about something, we want to see something happen. When the results don’t happen right away we tend to get a little impatient.

During this time of Advent, priests go from parish to parish and hear hundreds of confessions. Repairing the effects of sin and disorder in our lives is a good way to prepare in Advent for the coming of the Christ. My experience of the sacrament of confession is taking a little journey with the person confessing into the desert landscapes of their lives. Generally, the person confessing tends to share with the priest what is most infertile in their lives, what is the most broken, what is the most painful and wounded, even where they hide the things that have died long ago because of neglect. The desert can be a frightening place to visit. It certainly is not difficult to imagine becoming lost in the desert. So it is in the desert portions of people’s lives. In regard to the hard and harsh nature of John the Baptist, Jesus asks people, “What did you go out to the desert to see?” (Mt 11,8) John made people uncomfortable, just as going into the desert places of one’s life in confession makes some people uncomfortable. As a prophet, John named people’s sins. The priest goes along with the person making this journey in their lives to the “ground zero” of their existence and he carries the light of Christ so that they will be able to find their way back again to life. On this journey you can see in the person making their confession the distress they feel having allowed their lives to become such a desert — a dry, empty, lifeless place. The persons are eager to see some transformation in this forsaken place in their lives. Too often the person confessing is expecting some immediate results in their lives. They want things to get better fast.

The priest-confessor walks with the person as the presence of Christ and brings the healing power of his Spirit. In the person of Christ the priest offers the grace of the sacrament to begin a process of renewal. He proclaims the gospel message with his compassionate presence to the person vulnerable and in pain. The message that the priest proclaims in his offering reconciliation and pardon for sins is the good news of God’s compassion and power to make all things new. “Here is your God, he comes to save you.” (Isaiah 35,5) The priest points to Jesus and offers the penitent new life. While surveying the desert, lifeless landscape the priest promises that, “the desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom.” (Isaiah 35,1) Things will get better with God’s grace and power at work in a person’s life.

However, often it is clear that the penitent is expecting some immediate results. It is not enough to know that change will happen, they want to know when. They want to know when they will come into God’s presence, when they will be saved, and when they will begin to feel better about things. Many people come to the sacrament of confession with the idea that it is something magic. They will say their part, the priest says his part and then all their sins will go away. The new life that comes in the sacrament of confession begins with the absolution received from the priest but the full transformation of a life that has become a desert takes some time. James reminds us in the scriptures that we must be patient, like the farmer waiting for the precious fruit of the earth, patiently waiting until it receives the early and late rains. (James 5,7-10) So we must have a firm heart and wait patiently for the fruit of the spirit to manifest itself in our lives.

The patient waiting that we experience in Advent is an active waiting. God gives us the grace of reconciliation but now we must begin to live a life of new hope and joy. It will take some time for a marriage to take on new life, for a relationship to get better at work, for disordered desires to recede and for a new love to begin. A person must cooperate with God’s grace and begin to live in a new state of righteousness and holiness. There are no magic seeds that grow immediately. Patience along with faithful, joyful hope must be constant companions in one’s daily life. It takes time, patience and care for the desert to be transformed and to become a watered garden. Wait for it, be stouthearted and wait in hope, our God is at work and he will come in his time with salvation.