My favourite rock band is the Irish group U2.  And one of my favourite songs is U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.  It's the second track from U2's 1987 album The Joshua Tree.  Here are several lyrics:

You broke the bonds

And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Oh my shame, you know I believe it.

But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.

This song reminds me so much of Advent that is often described as a period of waiting.  It's that time of the year when the beginnings of winter slow us down a piece.  The snows soften our cities and lives, hushing our surroundings.  Advent slows us down as the snowy paths slow our faltering steps.  

I simply love Advent.  It's often a very busy time of year – the end of the semester, the beginning of exams, the push of deadlines.  At the same time, our Advent liturgies invite us to wait and long for something – or Someone who matters far beyond our daily labours. 

We pause, we listen, we long for the coming of Christ – for the birth of our Messiah, for the birth of the Trinity in our naked now, for the Second Coming of Love when all our tears will be wiped away. 

I am well aware that I still haven't found what I'm looking for.  I may have my Jesuit vocation, my academic degrees, … even my Safeway card and my Visa card, but, to be honest, I know that I long for something much more.  Maybe that is why I love Advent.  The beginning of the new liturgical year, the beginning of the winter season, mimics the longings of my heart laden with its dust bunnies and plaque.

As U2 proclaim, I know that my Saviour has broken the bonds of my imprisonment and loosed the chains of my doubt, but I know that my heart and soul never cease to long for something. This longing is holy, I hope, but often the restlessness seems downright unruly.  And so I need Advent.  It's my annual dose of spiritual sanity, my annual spiritual check-up so to speak, that calls me to continue my pilgrimage of waiting and longing.  Waiting not to find what I'm looking for, but, rather waiting to be found by the One who longs to be birthed within me.