The Pink Sponge

“The Pink Sponge”

by Brian Flanagan

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Last week, on the Third Sunday of Advent, I GOT ENGAGED! I’m getting married to the most wonderful amazing beautiful woman on the face of the earth (no offense to my mom or my soon-to-be mother-in-law, who I’m pretty sure are the two biggest fans of my blog).

I chose the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) because “Gaudete” means “Rejoice!” The pink candle in the Advent Wreath represents Joy, and as I wrote in last week’s blog, the joy of the Lord should cause us to walk around every day with a joy as though we just proposed and our fiancée said “YES!”

…if you’re wondering how I proposed and what it has to do with a pink sponge, you’ll have to read to the end of this blog…

So how does this tie into the Fourth Sunday of Advent? Actually in all of Scripture, there probably isn’t a better tie-in with my getting engaged than this week’s Gospel. The Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Advent is the Annunciation, when the angel appears to Mary and asks her to be the Mother of God. Mary could have said “no”, or she could have said, “yes if…”, or “yes when…” or “yes but…”, but rather she said “YES.” Period. I believe it was Ven. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen who once said that at the moment of the Annunciation, all of heaven paused in suspense, waiting on Mary’s answer, and when she gave God her “fiat” (permission), heaven erupted with thunderous cheers and celebration.

Mary then waited those nine months until Christmas in joyful anticipation. My fiancée (I can’t stop saying that word lately by the way) and I will now await the day of our wedding in joyful anticipation. It won’t be a time of passive waiting, but rather active waiting, planning, and preparing – not only for our wedding, but for our life together. I’m pretty sure we could plan the whole thing in a couple of hours but my sister has informed me that isn’t how it works!

Another reason I love that we got engaged during Advent is this; Advent (and engagement) both parallel our life here on earth. Christmas (and marriage/a wedding feast) both parallel our life in heaven – that perfect union with God. This life isn’t meant to be a passive waiting, moping around with our hands in our pockets until we get to heaven some day, but rather it’s supposed to be an active waiting, running around, preparing in uncontrollable excitement until that day comes, just like an engagement!

And now for the story. I had the ring in a sponge – a pink sponge for Gaudete Sunday, and I got down on one knee in front of my fiancée’s kitchen sink. I said, “I want to know you, love you, and serve you the very best that I can for the rest of my life, including but certainly not limited to washing the dishes. Will you marry me?” And she said, “YES!”