Next
1st Sunday of Advent Year C - 29/11/2015 - Gospel: Lk 21: 25-28, 34-36
Hope
Hope is waiting for something to happen. We hope because we want to change our present situation for the better and we do it either for us or for our family members or friends. Hope that stands alone is meaningless because it doesn't make sense of what we hope for. To clarify its meaning hope needs to have an object enclosing it because the object will clarify the meaning of what we hope for. We can have hope for ourselves and also have hope for someone else.

Advent is a time for trust and hope in God. Through the birth of God's only Son who comes to live amongst us and through Him we will see with our own eyes the immense love and the boundless mercy God reveals through the human baby Jesus.  In his saving mission Jesus reveals and renews of God's creation. All good things will be made anew in Jesus because Jesus comes to the world to redeem the world by His own blood. Jesus becomes homeless, a refugee and is rejected by his own people and judge unjustly by a civil society and nailed on the cross amongst sinners to show us the saving power of God. On the cross Jesus promised God's kingdom for a repentant thief and under the cross the head of the army confessed that Jesus is the Son of God.

Christians hope is not a passive hope but an active one. It begins with personal repentance of sins. Repentance is the process calling each individual to will and look deep into one's own heart and to denounce a former way of life and return to God's way. Through Jesus, God reveals to the world that God's love and mercy and forgiveness as John the Baptist proclaimed 'prepare the way of the Lord' and those who prepare the way to welcome the Lord will 'see the salvation of God'. John used the worldly images to help us to prepare our inner lives, namely

Make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low, winding ways will be straightened and rough roads made smooth.

Christians are called to place our hope in God at all time especially in times of trouble and suffering. Do not lose hope in God because apart from Him no one can offer us true hope and genuine, unconditional love. Those who firmly place their trust and faith in God will experience that God speaks to us through personal events and that strengthens and deepen their Faith in God. In time of mourning and trouble we experience that we are not alone but Jesus journeys with us through and through. History of salvation has shown us the Almighty God has done great things for those who placed their faith and hope in God. God who has the power to change from a hopelessness situation to a hopeful condition and God alone has the last word, not the power of death. 

Repentance leads to hope and with hope in the Lord we will see the salvation of God.

Previous