Dear Parishioners:
The Holy Season of Advent begins this Sunday. It is a season of prayerful preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ's second coming at the end of time. It is a time of joyful anticipation for the anniversary of Our Lord's birth on Christmas. From the Church's earliest days, people have been fascinated by Jesus' promise to return. But the scripture readings during Advent tell us not to waste our time with predictions. Advent is not about speculation.
Our Advent readings call us to be alert and ready, not weighed down and distracted by the cares of this world. Like Lent, the liturgical color for Advent is purple since both are seasons that prepare us for great feast days. Advent also includes an element of penance in the sense of preparing, quieting, and disciplining our hearts for the full joy of Christmas.
However, more than any other season of the year, it is rooted in the virtue of hope. For Catholics, the new year begins not on January 1 but on the First Sunday of Advent, the day the Church begins her annual new cycle of Scripture readings and worship. The season of Advent, deriving from the Latin verb advenire, meaning "to come" or "to arrive," has a two-fold purpose: first, to remind us of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and all that it implied for the salvation of the world; and, second, to ready us for Christ's second coming at the end of time as king and judge of creation.
For Christians, the virtue of hope enables us to face the burdens of daily life, no matter how heavy. In his 2007 Encyclical Spe Salvi ("Saved in Hope'), Pope Benedict reminds us that "the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey."
Faith in Jesus Christ leads us to hope for eternal life. Christ's life gives our lives meaning. If we believe in Jesus Christ, we will have confidence in the future, no matter how bleak some days or problems seem. In the end, Jesus has already won our salvation and the happiness that comes with it.
The virtue that Christians call hope is not a warm, fuzzy feeling, a sunny disposition, or a habit of optimism. The great French Catholic novelist Georges Bernanos once wrote that optimism has nothing to do with hope. Optimism is often foolish and naïve — a preference to see good where the evidence is undeniably bad. In fact, Bernanos called optimism a "sly form of selfishness, a method of isolating oneself from the unhappiness of others."
Hope is a very different thing. It's a choice to trust in God while judging ourselves and the world with unsentimental clarity inspired and reinforced by God's grace. "The highest form of hope," Bernanos said, "is despair, overcome." Jesus Christ was born in a stable and died brutally on the cross not to make a good world even better but to save a broken world from itself at the cost of his own blood. Such is the real world, our daily world, the world of Christian hope.
As we ready ourselves for the joy of Christmas this year, let's live Advent fully and well. Remember, even amidst a world often cold and cruel, with war and violence, suffering and pain, why, as Christians, we're called to be joyful. In the end, Christmas is not about the gifts, the carols, or the parties, though all these things are wonderful signs of joy. Christmas is about the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who brings joy, hope, and real meaning to a world that needs redemption. In Christ, and only in him, is our hope.
We celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Friday, December 8. It is a Holy Day of Obligation, and the Mass Schedule is: Vigil Mass at 5:00 PM on Thursday, and on the Holy Day, Friday, Masses are at 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM, and 7:00 PM.
St. Pope John Paul II said of this great Solemnity: "The Immaculate Conception shines like a beacon of light for humanity in all the ages. It guides us to believe and hope in God, in his salvation, and in eternal life."
I am making my annual retreat with the Trappists this week at Saint Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. Please pray for me. Remember to get to Mass on the Holy Day! Do good. Be well. God Bless. It's Advent! Pray for the Lord's coming and prepare the way!