Advent Hope

Advent for me is always  mystical - a divine mystery.

God becomes man and dwells with us, as one of us.
An Angel of the Lord cries  not to kings, but to the lowliest “Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth”

His kingdom, that we await, is closer to us today then yesterday.

His Holy Spirit is active in our world and in us.

So, I want to be a little mystical today.

John the Baptist was a holy man, the last prophet.
He drew people by his holiness, but it wasn’t him that brought redemption.

John prepared the way and only pointed to the one who would save, the one who was to come and in fact had already come into the world.

The Church, the sacrament of salvation, who also prepares the way isn’t the one, but she points to the one, who has come and who will come again.

The difference between John and the Church is that while John pointed to what was to come he could not make it happen. 

 But, the Church, as the life and action of the Holy Spirit, can make present what she points to.
As she points to Christ, she also makes Christ present.

This is a joyful mystery and an action Church that makes the divine present. 

And it is this mystery I want to reflect on today – Gaudete Sunday – the most joyful Sunday of Advent.

The Church makes present Christ in her sacraments and her liturgy, but also in her life of grace and perhaps most fitting at Advent in Her virtue of HOPE.

CRISTIAN HOPE (a grace of the Spirit) is our supernatural confidence in Jesus (his life, death, and resurrection) and in the Father who will renewal the face of the world and bring eternal life. 

Christian hope is a gift from the Holy Spirit and like the Church - hope can make present –

What we HOPE for is made present, incomplete, imperfect, and unfulfilled, but present all the same.

Advent is the season of HOPE and joyful expectations.

In Advent we hope for the coming kingdom and in that hope the kingdom (not yet fulfilled) is made present in the life of the Church and our everyday life become infused with the kingdom that is made present by our HOPE.

And this spiritual reality is expressed in our JOY.

 Our hope and joy are not passive, but are active .

From Isaiah

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me: he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor and to heal the broken hearted”

The Spirit comes intently and with force and anoints with purpose and he does so for mission. 

The Spirit encourages us, strengthens us, comforts us fills us with Hope and Joy and then sends forth.

“To glorify the Lord with our lives”, says the new dismissal of the mass.

In baptism you and I have been anointed (chrism is the sign) with the Spirit to be priest prophet and king to build up; the self, the family, the community, the world, to make God’s kingdom present.

What does it look like to live an annointed life in the Holy Spirit?

Paul tells us in the second reading.

“Rejoice Always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks.”

Rejoice always, because God gives life and sustains life and offers eternal life.  Our God is not is not hidden, but is present everywhere.

We are never abandoned or lost.  There is nowhere God cannot find us.

And as Jesus told us God, the Father loves us first, always and completely, as we are.

We rejoice because in Baptism we are given new spiritual life with the Holy Spirit a life of Grace that binds us together with each other and to God.

We rejoice because we are offered a life of  FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY, & LOVE.

Pray always. We need a rich prayer life.  We need spontaneous, personal, devotional, and public prayer of the Church – the Liturgy.

Prayer bring us closer to God and in turn closer to our true humanity. 

But, to pray unceasingly, is not to constantly pray, but to live prayerfully. 

Making our everyday life a prayer, and offering to God, who has given us everything is to pray unceasing. 

To live a life that is in right relationship with each other is to pray unceasingly.

Because - Our relationship to God is directly related to our relationship to others.

To be in right relationship with others is being in right with GOD.

Jesus tells us plainly the commandment to love God is first, but the second is like it, to love neighbor.

In all circumstances give thanks

This can be tough.

The human condition and the human psyche can make life rough.  There are all kinds suffering in this world.  But, this is a result of sin, not God.

When we give thanks in all circumstances (regardless of where we find ourselves) we acknowledge the reality of a broken transitory world wounded by sin and human life that includes suffering.

But in giving thanks for all that God gives acknowledge that we are more then sin and suffering.

We are not reduced by suffering or in slaved by it.

We endure when we must and we confront when we can.

We are a people not identified by our suffering, but by our HOPE.

Not by our sorrow, but by our JOY.

Not by anger, but by love.

Not by the transitory, but the eternal.

We are people of the ADVENT MYSTERY,  Because God loved us he come into the world to be bring glad tidings to the broken hearted and salvation to all.

Advent is a time to live in HOPE, which makes present, what we wait for in JOYFUL EXPECTATION.

To live out this HOPE & JOY in our lives is to be like John and the Church, we point not to ourselves,

but to he who came and who will comes again.

We are not the light, but we witness to the light by our lives.