I SUNDAY OF ADVENT
WITNESSES OF HOPE
By our Pastor, Fr. Carmelo Jimenez
This First Sunday of Advent is the start of a new liturgical year. For that reason it is a good time to consider what new possibilities it brings us. It is a new opportunity to return to the house of our Father. It is an occasion to take a step back and look towards the future, a time to go over what we have lived and ask ourselves: How is everything? What does my heart say? What does my intellect say? What do my actions teach me? It is a time for each of us with God, where we cannot have duplicity or be two-faced, because we can’t lie to ourselves. We also need to ask ourselves about our relationships: with others, with God and with ourselves.
Advent is a time for an attitude of adoration and contemplation before the Word of God. May we celebrate it once again as a child. May it awaken our hearts, our tenderness and leave us ready to be taken in and accepted. It is a time of pious contemplation and joyful waiting for the one who is truly life and who brings us life.
The first reading from the prophet Isaiah has the context of the difficulties of the kingdom of Judah, including the invasion of Judah and Israel. Faced with this situation the prophet announces hope: “many peoples shall come and say: ‘Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob.’” (Is 2:3a) The poet-prophet directs their gaze to a glorious future for the kingdom. In difficult moments it becomes even more urgent to enliven our hope and remember our ethical commitments. The image of Jerusalem on the highest mountain above the hills invites us to believe in the certainty and strength of God’s plan for his people and for the world. Christian hope has some specific characteristics: it is always looking toward something good, a good future, one that may be difficult one to reach but not impossible, because it relies on the power of God. This underlines the last aspect of our hope: it will never fail. The popular saying is: Hope is the last thing to die! The prophet motivates his people: “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” (Is 2:5)
The Gospel is also reminding us of history in order to invite us to hope. “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” (Mt 24:37) It centers on the hope of a glorious end that God has prepared for mankind and that will take place despite all the opposition, persecution and difficulties of this life. Our world needs the strong proclamation that Jesus is the hope of his Church, in spite of our mistakes and despite persecutions. It is always possible to move forward. Our world is crying out for and yearns for, without even being conscious of it, people who are convinced of and live in accordance with their hopes and convictions. The world today in the ordinary as well as in its grand endeavors, still needs Jesus and his disciples who are motivated by this great hope. Those who have taken God out of the schools and public institutions have not gotten any good result, and the violence and other evils (especially among the youth) are only a cry for the need for God, the need for hope.
“Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” (Mt 24:42) It is a clear invitation to start or continue our walk in faith, taking God’s “today” seriously. To not leave for tomorrow what we could do today. The future will arrive, and if it comes and finds our lamps of faith lit, blessed are we! Because we will obtain the salvation, which is to say hope will become reality. The tense hope of something important heightens our vigilance. But it is necessary to discover that the second coming of the Son of Man is the definitive answer to the longings of humanity. Just as it is necessary to announce to the world that Jesus is the only thing that gives meaning to human existence.
May God help us be pillars of hope for our brothers and sisters that have lost it or have never had it. May we be witnesses of hope!