On this last day of Advent, the eve of Christ’s birth, my prayer is a prayer of hope. With the birth of a baby there is so much to hope for. It is an event that inspires love, joy, and life. Hope is the fruit of this.
This Jubilee Year is a Year of Hope: hope in our God who does not disappoint. We hope for the Lord’s merciful love. We hope in the joy that comes only from knowing Him. We hope in life that only He can bring us to. As Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of St Peter’s today, and as various Holy Doors around the world are opening, my prayer is that our hearts-yours and mine- are opened to hope.
Hope Born of Love
As the Pope wrote in his Bull Spes non Confundit number 3, “Hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross…Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love…Here we see the reason why this hope perseveres in the midst of trials: founded on faith and nurtured by charity, it enables us to press forward in life.”
What if in this season of life, love, joy, and life seem hard to come by? What if there is not something I am looking forward to? What if my trials seem like they are separating me from God?
Hold onto Hope
Pope Francis in number 4 of Spes non Confundit then points us to St Paul’s words from his letter to the Romans. “We boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Rom 5:3-4).
It is true that life does not always turn out the way we want it to. But that does not mean that God is not with us. And it does not make what we hope for any less true.
The little baby who is to be born in the manger was not a stranger to suffering. He even felt abandoned years later when He was dying on the cross. Hope is about that—believing in what you do not yet see. And just as after the Lord suffered, He resurrected, this hope is ours because of Him.
Let us make a pact to pray for each other and especially for those who are suffering this season, that our hope may increase this Christmas when we come before the infant Jesus to adore Him.
