The New Wine Press vol 25 no 3 November 2016 | Page 4

Editor’s Notes

Who’s Expecting?

by Fr. Richard Bayuk, c.pp.s., Publications Editor
In the 1950s, “I Love Lucy” was a popular television comedy, starring Lucille Ball
and Desi Arnaz. During the second season, Lucy and Ricky have a son, whose birth
was timed to coincide with Ball’s real-life delivery of their son Desi Arnaz, Jr. At no
time on the show were they allowed to show her pregnant. As late as 1962, when
Johnny Carson’s show debuted, the word “pregnant” itself could not be used; “so and
so is expecting” was allowed and preferred.
I like both words, “pregnant” and “expecting.” Both are intimately connected to
the season of Advent—which is rapidly approaching. Both are also embedded in the
themes running through the articles in this issue: creating something new, deepening
the dialogue, paradigm shifts, new normal, reimagining, widening circle, preparing,
being open.
The quaint phrase, “so and so is expecting,” seems to capture the melody of this
lovely season. Mary is expecting new life in a mysterious, wondrous way. The people
of Advent—like the prophets, for example—are acting like expectant parents; they feel
new life kicking in their weary nation’s womb. Paul with all his ups and downs is convinced that Lord is coming back, and he’s expecting it to happen soon. John the Baptist
of course was very challenging in his preaching, because something in his prophet’s
gut told him that old times were coming to an and.
All the characters of Advent are people who are expecting. The word comes from
Latin, exspectare, “to look out for” or “to look out of.” So we can say people who are
expecting are those who are looking out of their present situation to something new
that is going to occur—and that they can help bring about. And it’s because they are
pregnant, i.e., full of possibilities, teeming with life, looking forward.
I’d like to suggest that we are all preparing to give birth this Advent (and all year
round into the future). There is new life that needs to be born in us as individuals, as
families, as a country—and certainly as a religious community. In each case, the birth
for which we are preparing is our own. Of course, rebirth means even more changes;
as any couple can attest, it’s never the same after a birth.
As surely as we celebrate the pregnancy of Mary and rejoice in her son, as surely as
families around the world celebrate their pregnancies and rejoice in the hope of new
life, we celebrate a church that is ever pregnant with the hope of Christ’s coming and
celebrate our own hope and expectation for the new life which stirs within us. I invite
you to reflect on the articles presented here with this lens of expectation and pregnancy. And consider what this—my favorite Advent poem—might offer as well.
After Annunciation
Madeleine L’Engle
This is the irrational season
when love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
there’d have been no room for the child. W

2 • The New Wine Press • November 2016