One of my favorite songs during Advent is “My Soul in Stillness Waits”. It sums up Advent: “For you oh Lord, my soul in stillness waits. Truly, my hope is in You”. During Advent, we are waiting for the coming of Jesus. Advent is a time of waiting and hope.
As I heard the mass readings this week for the Second Sunday of Advent, I pulled out a theme: hope. What are we hoping for? Just like the word love, I think we use the word hope in a lot of different contexts. For example, I love cookies; I love this movie or TV show; I hope I get a bike for my birthday… we could go on and on. But hope, as in one of the theological virtues (faith, hope, and love), is much more. We hope in the salvation that Jesus offers us.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains hope like this:
Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (CCC 1817)
The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. (CCC 1818)
Christian hope unfolds from the beginning of Jesus’ preaching in the proclamation of the beatitudes. The beatitudes raise our hope toward heaven as the new Promised Land… … Hope is expressed and nourished in prayer, especially in the Our Father, the summary of everything that hope leads us to desire. (CCC 1820)
In the readings for the Second Sunday of Advent, Baruch offers us hope. “Take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever: wrapped in the cloak of justice from God, bear on your head the mitre that displays the glory of the eternal name.” In the Responsorial Psalm, I see more hope: “Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the torrents in the southern desert. Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.” St. Paul says in the second reading from Philippians, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” In the Gospel reading of Luke, St. John the Baptist was proclaiming to prepare the way of the Lord with a message of hope that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God”.
Hope is a powerful thing. It’s a light at the end of the tunnel. When we’re feeling isolated, lonely, or in despair, we can look to Jesus for hope. We can clothe ourselves with the robe of splendor and glory. We all need hope. Daily, we encounter people who are facing a battle or hardship that we know nothing about. As a result, let us try to treat others with compassion. We don’t always know what cross they may be carrying. Instead, it is an opportunity to encourage our brothers and sisters, giving them a glimpse of hope. “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” – 1 Peter 3:15. We can be that beacon of light and hope for them, lifting them up.
There’s good news and it is found in the joy of the Gospel. Jesus is our hope and salvation! We can turn to Him when we feel down, or in need of something greater in our lives; that being God. As we continue through Advent, let us reflect on our reason for our hope. Jesus is the reason for our hope.