Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Advent is a time of waiting, of expectation, a quiet time of wonder. It is first of all a preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus and the second part, a novena from December 17th to 25th, is the immediate preparation for Christmas. It is a time of hope. It is different from Lent: it is not penitential it is joyful.
Advent, the coming of Christ, is a time full of hope. For some people a cynicism has developed over the years, and the stress of the holidays may even add to it. I invite you to work on recovering the sense of waiting and excitement that you had as a child. Hope is a theological virtue that is perhaps less understood today. Therefore, I will focus on it during these four weeks of Advent using St. Paul’s letter to the Romans.
First of all I can say that hope requires a desire, a yearning for something, an event or a gift or a relationship. So it is a good time to reflect on the longings of your soul; not a wishful thinking, but something much deeper.
Part of that longing means an action must take place. Hope is what makes you move forward. Christianity is a religion of hope. God is preparing a place for you and is guiding all the actions of your life. He promised that he would come again. We are a people who are “on the way” and have not yet arrived to the happiness of eternal life.
What do you call it when some says they “have arrived,” they have it all. This is presumption. And its opposite is the one who says, “I’ll never get there; it is impossible.” This is despair. Hope is a virtue, a good habit that lies in the middle of these two extremes. Advent is a time of hope, of waiting for the Lord.
Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome in the year 58 AD. It is one of his most profound letters and he is introducing himself to the Christian community whom he has not met at the time of his writing. And what does he say to them? He says the ‘time’ has come to wake up. It is the time of salvation. A Christian is ‘a child of the day’ freed from a fallen world, and a time of darkness, and belongs to the kingdom of light. This new status of a Christian dominates the whole moral outlook. St. Paul says, “Throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us live decently, as in the light of day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop worrying…”
So it is a good time to ask yourself, what do you hope for, what are your deepest longings? What ought you to desire for your marriage, for your family, your parents? It is much more than a desire for an easy life, or more money. Approach it with confidence trusting in God, not in yourself. During this time of Advent, a preparation for Christmas, you must be willing to fight for what you hope for. Not in a battle against others but an interior fight against those things that take you away from God, and the goodness that he wants for you.
