First Sunday Of Advent, Year B: Advent Hope

A man named John Hakel says his three-year-old daughter looked at a calendar and asked him, "Daddy, how many BE GOOD days until Christmas?" 1

Advent is not a penitential season; it’s a period of devout and expectant delight, yet we intuitively understand that it is not possible coherently to celebrate the birth of him "who saves his people from their sins" without some effort to overcome sin in one's own life, while waiting vigilantly for Him who will return at the end of time, or when we personally enter into eternity.

The purpose of Advent is to prepare us for the first coming of Christ at Christmas and for Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time.

Nevertheless, Advent is about hope. The first Advent candle is called the Candle of Hope. Romans 8:24 says that we are saved by hope.

Baptism is the ordinary means of the infusion of hope into the soul, giving a power to hope in the promise of God of heaven. No created thing can fill completely the heart of man, in whom God has placed an infinite capacity that can only be satisfied in God.

Optimism is an assessment. Hope is an act. 2

Hope resides in the will, its object is eternal happiness. The secondary object consists in all the means leading to it.

Hope is not selfish. We desire God for ourselves, not because of ourselves but because of himself. God continues to be the end or goal of the act of hope, not ourselves. Of ourselves alone we can do nothing, with God's grace we can do all things (Phil. 4:13).

Hope increases by reading and hearing Scripture more. Romans 15:4 says, "By the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope." Only hearing secular music or watching too much news can make one discouraged. Encouragement comes when we hear the voice of God speaking to us in the Holy Scriptures and in sacred and seasonal music this time of year.

As a verb, hope in Scripture is to wait, expect, and hope for, as in Ps 130:5: “I wait for the Lord; I wait and put my hope in his word.” The average person throughout their lifetime spends five years waiting in lines and six months of that is waiting at traffic lights.

Psychologists have linked hope to healing (Menninger) and to effective psychotherapy (Frankl). Anthony Scioli, speaks of the social nature of hope, based on connection, attachment and engagement.

Saying, “I feel so hopeful” is based on our experience of both availability and presence from another person which helps us have a taste of God’s incredible availability. 3

E.g. A man went for a walk in the forest and got lost. He wandered around for hours trying to find his way back to town, trying one path after another, but none of them led him out. Then abruptly he came across another hiker walking through the forest. He cried, “Thank God for another human being. Can you show me the way back to town?”

The other man replied, “No, I am lost too. But we can still help each other in this way — we can tell each other which path we have already tried and been disappointed in. That will help us find the one that leads out.” 4

It is like being trapped in a box, and the instructions for getting out of the box are on the outside. You need someone to read them to you.

Hope is also a noun. In Rom 5:5, “This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Hope is not a denial of reality. St. Paul has four checkpoints on the pathway toward having hope: suffering, endurance, proven character, hope. 5

To illustrate: The story is told of a bible study group that had been asked the question, "In your time of discouragement, what is your favorite Scripture?" A young man said, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (Psalm 23:1).

A middle age woman said, "God is my refuge and strength (Psalm 46:1)."

Then Mr. John, who was 80 years old, said, “my verse is ‘and it came to pass’," which is not a complete verse, but it is a phrase that comes up hundreds of times in the Bible like in Genesis 4:3, “And in process of time IT CAME TO PASS, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.

Mr. John explained:

"At 30 I lost my job with six hungry mouths and a wife to feed. I didn't know how I would make it. At 40 my eldest son was killed overseas in the war. It knocked me down.

At 50 my house burned to the ground. Nothing was saved out of the house. At 60 my wife of 40 years got cancer.