My Advent Journey 2017 - Waiting in Hope
Advent is the time of yearning for Christ's birth. Last year, I wrote a Jesse Tree reflection to help me prepare for the coming of the Christ-child at Christmas. While at Mass yesterday, I noticed the four banners of Advent - Hope, Joy, Peace and Love. I was inspired to reflect each week on one of the themes. I'm going to try to write daily, at least during the week exploring different aspects of the weekly reflection. There are many things to say about each theme and my prayer is that I will forge a closer relationship with Jesus as we get closer to Christmas. In my family, our Advent preparation has always centered around our Nativity scene. It's more like Bethlehem. It has about 50 pieces or so and each one has its own story. When the kids were small, we would take turns reading each piece's story, then putting them into Bethlehem. Each night, we would add pieces until Christmas Eve when the Holy Family and Jesus were added. Now, the children are older. My daughter doesn't live at home any more and my 17 year old son is always at soccer or work and is barely here for the evening readings. So, I've asked each one to stop by the storage cabinet and put in a figure when they are here. We don't need to read the stories anymore - we've been doing that for about 20 years. But as each person adds a figure, we think about the stories that we know so well. Traditions change. I hope that my Advent Journey helps to enrich anyone who reads this blog. That is my hope... which leads nicely into my first reflection theme - HOPE.
Hope means a lot of things to a lot of people. The message of hope that has struck me over the past week has been one that I read regarding the survivors of the Holocaust and other disasters - both natural and man-made. As a people, so many horrid things have happened to us (or because of us) and it's miraculous that we've been able to survive. The only thing that kept us going was the HOPE that things would get better. Without HOPE, we give up and die - either spiritually or physically. HOPE provides that little spark in the darkness that allows us to see that something better is going to come.
I'm a big fan of the movie series, The Hunger Games. Interestingly, President Snow doesn't want to stop the war, or even stop Katniss, or the revolution. What he wants to stop is HOPE. He rightfully recognized that in our flawed human existence, there will always be wars, hunger, poverty, hate, greed, and all the other deadly sins. Without hope, we cannot rise above those things. I'm also an avid reader of Holocaust-themed novels and the spark of hope you saw in the 13 districts of the Hunger Games is the same spark the survivors held to tightly during their horrendous nightmare. In the movie, the masses needed Katniss to help them see that someone could, should and would stand up to the atrocities of the Hunger Games. In the lives of those Jews who suffered so terribly, their spark was God. In Christian life, Jesus is that beacon of hope.
I don't know about you, but sometimes I find it hard to find HOPE in this world. Every day, the headlines shout about mass killings, babies dying, crime increasing, threats of war with North Korea, and of course the required daily berating of the current president - often brought about by his reliance on social media which in itself saps hope from our lives. It's hard to imagine how we will be able, as a people, to climb out of this miry bog. In fact the bible doesn't even claim that we will be able to do that. Instead, according to Psalm 40:1-17, it will take the Lord to draw us from the pit of destruction and set our feet upon rock.
Notice, it all starts with waiting patiently. Waiting in hope.
Hope means a lot of things to a lot of people. The message of hope that has struck me over the past week has been one that I read regarding the survivors of the Holocaust and other disasters - both natural and man-made. As a people, so many horrid things have happened to us (or because of us) and it's miraculous that we've been able to survive. The only thing that kept us going was the HOPE that things would get better. Without HOPE, we give up and die - either spiritually or physically. HOPE provides that little spark in the darkness that allows us to see that something better is going to come.
I'm a big fan of the movie series, The Hunger Games. Interestingly, President Snow doesn't want to stop the war, or even stop Katniss, or the revolution. What he wants to stop is HOPE. He rightfully recognized that in our flawed human existence, there will always be wars, hunger, poverty, hate, greed, and all the other deadly sins. Without hope, we cannot rise above those things. I'm also an avid reader of Holocaust-themed novels and the spark of hope you saw in the 13 districts of the Hunger Games is the same spark the survivors held to tightly during their horrendous nightmare. In the movie, the masses needed Katniss to help them see that someone could, should and would stand up to the atrocities of the Hunger Games. In the lives of those Jews who suffered so terribly, their spark was God. In Christian life, Jesus is that beacon of hope.
I don't know about you, but sometimes I find it hard to find HOPE in this world. Every day, the headlines shout about mass killings, babies dying, crime increasing, threats of war with North Korea, and of course the required daily berating of the current president - often brought about by his reliance on social media which in itself saps hope from our lives. It's hard to imagine how we will be able, as a people, to climb out of this miry bog. In fact the bible doesn't even claim that we will be able to do that. Instead, according to Psalm 40:1-17, it will take the Lord to draw us from the pit of destruction and set our feet upon rock.
Psalm 40:1-17
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. ...Notice, it all starts with waiting patiently. Waiting in hope.
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