Homily
for December 2, 2007
Liturgical Year A - Cycle II
1st Sunday of Advent
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
Advent, a season of hope.
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Advent is the season of hope.
You know there are three theological virtues:
faith, hope, and charity; faith, hope and love.
St. Paul tells us in First Corinthians that love is the greatest of the
virtues. Of course, we talk a lot about
faith; we argue a lot about faith, but we seldom talk about hope.
We need this season of Advent to tell us
about hope so that we can reflect on this important, essential
virtue. In that light, I think our Holy Father
published his latest Encyclical
Letter on Friday, the 30th of November. It’s called, Saved by
Hope. Spe Salvi in
Latin. In this document, the Holy Father
says that Christianity provides the faithful with a journey of hope to
the
kingdom of God. The Encyclical addresses
many subjects. It addresses the culture
of death, and lack of hope. It addresses
atheism and its effects on Europe and the Americas. However, he
speaks mostly about hope. I am going to reflect on that for a
little
bit today because I think we are all people of hope. The catechism defines hope as, “the
theological virtue by
which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our
happiness,
placing our trust in Christ’s promise and relying not on our own
strength but
on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.”
We may not think a lot about hope but we really are people of
hope.
In many ways, we are Advent people. Have you ever waited the
results from the
doctor? That’s waiting and hoping that
it will be good. Young people will await
that answer from a university: Were they accepted or not? I
remember when I was in high school running
home each day and checking the mail and seeing if the letter was
there.
Many of you parents have hope at the bedside
of an injured or hurt child that he or she would be well. Some of
you have children in Iraq or
Afghanistan. You watch the news
religiously. You know all the names of
the towns and you hope and pray that your son or daughter will return
home
safely. Many of you have hope that your
marriage will survive and prosper. Some
of you are hoping that you do not lose that job that means so much to
you and
your family. There are some who hope
they can just make it through this day without a drink for they’ve been
sober
for three months. Hoping. We know a
lot about it. We do a lot of it. It is just part of who we
are. Animals don’t hope, we hope. We’re made in God’s image
and likeness. “He kisses her gently on the
forehead.
The doctor has told him that it is over. Her nine years of
Alzheimer’s have come to an
end. Her Advent is over. His continues hoping that he will
be with her
again.” Unfortunately, for many people their
hopes and dreams are
limited to this life only. St. Paul
tells us in First Corinthians that they are the most pitiable of
Christians if
they limit their hopes in Christ to this, to what we enjoy here.
I think if the world were ending, first of
all, I’d make a really good Act of Contrition, really good. Then
I would go out and watch it, the Grand
Finale. Can you imagine? It would be fantastic, wouldn’t
it?
Wow. I
always say that on the Sunday before, there will be a great collection
at
church. You laugh at that every time I
say it. We are so attached to this world that
we don’t want to
leave it even frankly, when we’re miserable.
St. Cyprian said, “We struggle and resist like strong-willed slaves and
are brought into the Lord’s presence with sorrow and lamentations not
freely
consenting to our departure from the earth but being brought to God
against our
will and desire.” We want to be people
of hope. If you are not hopeful, you are
not joyful. I mean the two are soul
mates. How do we live in hope; by
trusting in God and surrendering to His providence, His way. It’s fair to ask, as we begin Advent,
and I’ll be honest
with you, some of you have some work to do here: Are you a person of
hope? Are you hopeful or are you prone to
despair? Are you optimistic or
pessimistic by nature? Are you sanguine
or cynical? Are you brave or timid? Are you trusting or
suspicious? Are you cheerful or gloomy? Some of you have
some work to do there. Do you look forward to the future do you
dread it? How you answer those questions
and if you know yourself, they’re pretty easy to answer. By the way,
spouses do
not answer for your spouse.
Nevertheless, they’re pretty easy, you know the answers to those
questions. If you didn’t get all the
right answers you need Advent big time. Our Holy Father gives us a perfect
model of hope in our
Blessed Mother Mary. She said, “Let it
be done to me according to thy word.” An
angel appeared and said, “You are to be the mother of the
Messiah.”
She said, “Let it be done to me according to
thy word.” She heard the prophecy of
Simeon that her heart would be torn, Our Lady of Sorrows. She
fled into Egypt with her husband and her
son. She was there at Cana. She was at the foot of the
cross and she was
with him on Easter morning. She never
despaired. As Luke says, “She treasured
all these things and pondered them in her heart.” The Holy Father
has a reflection in Spe
Salvi. He refers to Mary under her title
as Stella Maris, which is Star of the Sea and he offers and commends
Mary to
you and to me as the light to lead us.
He wrote, “Human life is a journey towards what destination? How
do we find the way? Life is like a voyage on the sea of history
often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the star to
indicate the
route. The true stars of our life are
the people who have lived good lives.
They are signs of hope. Certainly,
Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the
shadows of
history. But to reach him we also need
lights close by, people who shine with his light and so guide us along
the way. Who more than Mary could be a star of hope
for us? With her, she opens the door of
our world to God himself. Thus she
remained in the midst of the disciples as their mother, as the mother
of hope.” And we pray with Pope Benedict:
Holy
Mary, mother of God, our mother, teach us to
believe, to hope, to love with you. Show
us the way to His kingdom. Star of the
Sea shine upon us and guide us on our way. Amen.