Advent Hope

By DEACON ROBERT YERHOT, MSW

When you receive this issue of The Courier, Advent will have arrived with all it entails for us in our Catholic lives. For me, Advent is not only a time of preparation for the coming of our Lord Jesus, and thus renewed commitment to prayer and penance, but, most especially, it is a time of great hope. What other season of the Church year can teach us better about hope than Advent, when we await the fulfillment of God’s promised Messiah, our Savior, the child of Bethlehem?

Whenever I speak of hope, my thoughts turn immediately to Pope John Paul I, Albino Luciani. Although only pope for 32 days in 1978, he won my heart and the hearts of so many people throughout the world. Luciani, giving voice to what he believed God would say, spoke of hope in his book, Illustrissimi:

Men’s faith does not amaze me - God says - it is not surprising: I shine so in my creation, that to not see me, these poor people would have to be blind. Men’s charity does not amaze me - God says - it is not surprising: these poor creatures are so unhappy that if they do not have hearts of stone, they cannot but feel love for one another. But hope: that is what amazes me! (Illustrissimi, pg 24).

Dear readers, I am not surprised by your fidelity to the Lord and his Church; nor am I surprised by your charity, your love, for your families and the poor and marginalized in our diocese. Your faith and your charity are consistent with your call to be Christians, and within the embrace of your particular vocations.

I do marvel at your spirit of hope for the future, despite the many challenges that lie ahead of us as followers of Christ in the world today. With so many things now before us that could easily dampen our hopefulness for the future, whether in the Church or in the world in which we live, I continue to find in you, in the people of God, a hopefulness rooted in the coming of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, and in his promises to us all. We must never lose our hope!

This hope finds its source in prayer, in communion with God, and then with each other. If you are discouraged or dispirited, humbly ask yourselves this question: “How much time am I spending before our Lord in communion with him?” Prayer was the secret of St. Teresa of Calcutta; it was the way of St. Monica over the course of many years in her concern for Augustine; it was the life of our Blessed Mother, who never lost hope and always was in communion with her divine Son.

Let us be people of Advent! Let us be people of hope! Let us be the “amazement of God” in a world too easily overcome with discouragement. Hope always leads to the destination of our life journey, eternal life with our Triune God. God bless you all!

Deacon Robert Yerhot serves the parishes of St. Mary in Caledonia and St. Patrick in Brownsville.