Pastor's Points: "A Season of Hope"

Pastor's Points: "A Season of Hope"

The word “hope” is a common term. We might say, “I hope we’re having hamburgers for dinner,” or “I hope I get the job,” or “I hope Father preaches a short homily today!”  (A term only used when you are visiting other parishes, I am sure!)  We hope for a lot of things. December 2nd  is the First Sunday of Advent, and we again begin this season of hope. Adrian Nocent, OSB, writes the following about the season we now enter:
 
The purpose of the liturgy is to put the Christian in contact with a reality that, though spiritual, is fully real.  Each year, then, the Church puts the Christian into a situation where his hope can come alive and grow strong: She bids him hope, along with the whole of the Old Testament, for the coming of deliverance.  The deliverance has already been accomplished; now he can celebrate it as a deliverance that is present to him through signs, and as he celebrates it, he can reach out from and make his way toward, that moment when all signs shall vanish.  The element of waiting that is part of Christian hope finds sacramental expression as the Christian relives in the present the Old Testament past, lives the incarnation as a event today, and waits for the return of Christ and the breaking of the mirror on the last day.  Such is the rich life of the Advent season.  (The Liturgical Year, Volume One)
 
Advent is just about my favorite season of the Church’s liturgical year. The readings are filled with wonderful images of John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness for us to make ready the way of the Lord. The Prophet Isaiah foretells of the One who is to come—Emmanuel, God With Us. The Advent wreath, as David Philippart reminds us, “… is eternity’s clock –a circle that says, 'In our ending is our beginning.'  It is the wheel of time-a circle of evergreen branches…revealing that death and life are both of a piece.  It is also the victor’s laurel garland, the sign that the race is done, the prize is won.  It is the crown of us as a people, a chosen race, a royal priesthood.  We are marked for eternity.  With four candles lit, the Advent wreath is the fiery crown that we give to Christ the King, who returns in the growing gloom to gather us into our eternal home. (Celebration, October 2003) 
 
Advent is indeed a season of hope. It may sound odd, but we wait in hope for what has already happened: Christ’s incarnation, the entrance of our God into this world as one like us in all things but sin. We hope that we will be ready to kneel at the manger on Christmas morning. We hope that we will have prepared our hearts, minds and souls to greet the newborn king.  As we recall Christ’s coming at Christmas, we are also mindful of his coming at the end of time when the Lord will gather unto himself all those who have waited in hope for his return.
 
Let us make this a truly holy, hope-filled season.