HOPEDecember 16, 2024

Hope. What is it about hope that captures our imagination, that can stir our hearts? Of all the virtues, it seems to me to be the most fleeting, the one I can lose so easily in the midst of the difficulties of life and the seemingly multiplying evils in our world.

Yet hope for us is more than an airy wish. Advent is a season of hope. Our hope is confirmed by what God has already done for us, beginning with the presence of Christ in our lives and our world. Our Advent hope is based on faith that the Kingdom of God is here-now while still yet-to-come. We witness this every day, in every act of kindness, in every gift of self, in every effort made toward justice, in every change of heart, no matter how small. The Kingdom of God is among us.

And we are witnesses that the promises of God are not empty. Every Christmas season reminds us that the promises of God are completed and enfleshed in the Promise of God become Human.

Merry Christmas! May your hope be strengthened by the coming of Christ into your lives.

Sister Elaine Berkopec