1st Week of Advent 2018 - Wednesday - Dare we hope?

Of the four weeks of Advent, this first week is characterized by hope, the second by love, the third by joy, and the fourth by peace. But we begin with hope.

Hope is a universal human experience—every human person ever has hoped. They’ve hoped that their lives not be filled with so much suffering; they’ve hoped for happiness. Hope motivates the human quest for happiness. The ancient Greek philosophers, for example, hoped to discern the right way of living that lead to a eudaimonia, as they called it, a happy life.

The hope of the Jewish people fills the sacred scriptures: their hope that God will save them from their enemies, from famine and disease, from political discord, from sin and earth. We hear throughout the Advent season Israel’s hope expressed especially through the prophet Isaiah. We heard today their hope that God would ultimately gather his people upon a holy mountain, where all nations would live in harmony, where they would be fed richly, where they would be saved, and where they would see God face-to-face, because God is not always easy to see amidst the sufferings of life, is He? Even Christians have a hard time seeing God when a loved one dies, when the innocent suffer, when doubts arise about how I’ll feed my family, how I’ll make it to another day. God is hard to see when the powers of death seem to rule and reign.

St. Luke describes Jesus today going up a mountain, and healing the lame, the deformed, the mute, and many others, and then going on to feed a multitude through miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Jesus is the fulfillment of the hopes of all peoples.

Many people, as we know, do not acknowledge Jesus to be the fulfillment of all hope, and they are sadder for it. Pope Benedict writes, “Man was created for greatness—for God himself; he was created to be filled by God. But his heart is too small for the greatness to which it is destined. So it must be stretched” Advent stretches our hearts through prayer and charity. Our hearts are stretched to be filled with God’s very life, as we encounter him through prayer and meditation on scripture, and our hearts are stretched as we grow in our awareness of the needs of our suffering brothers and sisters.
This Advent dare we allow ourselves to hope in Jesus more deeply, and to seek him in prayer and charitable service for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.

That through the witness of the Christian Church, Our Lord will bring hope to the hopeless and joy to the joyless.

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, feed every authentic hunger, ward off every affliction, and bring peace to the suffering.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for the Deceased members of the Yurick & Becker familiesfor whom this Mass is offered.

Almighty ever-living God, who bring salvation to all and desire that no one should perish, hear the prayers of your people and grant that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule and your Church rejoice in tranquility and devotion. Through Christ our Lord.