In your coffee this morning, besides the requisite cream and sugar, maybe there was also an ounce or two of melancholy. Perhaps, when you readied your backpack for school today, along with the textbooks and the iPad, you also found yourself carrying a heavy load of worry. As you updated your Facebook status this afternoon, maybe what you really wanted to say is – “I’m hurting, please help!” And as you pulled the car into the garage this evening, could it be that the SUV wasn’t the only thing running on empty?
There are so many of us who are dealing with anxiety, sickness, worry, heartache, guilt, trouble, and pain. The secular stresses of the Christmas season can ironically add to these burdens. What is supposed to be a time of joy can in reality be a time of turmoil. The darkness of the December skies can be reflected in the darkness of our mood. But as the angel said to Mary, and as the angels later said to the shepherds: “Do not be afraid!”
I dare you. No, I double-dare you. Just try to spend some time with the scriptures of Advent without also growing in hope. I don’t think it can be done! Consider, for example, today’s Mass reading from the Book of Isaiah:
The desert and the parched land will exult;
The steppe will rejoice and bloom.
They will bloom with abundant flowers,
And rejoice with joyful song.
Strengthen the hands that are feeble,
Make firm the knees that are weak,
Say to those whose hearts are frightened:
Be strong, fear not!
God so very much wants to bring light into our darkness and hope into our despair. He wants to turn our sorrow into joy, and to bring life from death. Let him! Sometimes we can become so accustomed to our discouragement that we wrap it around ourselves like a blanket. God’s Word says otherwise. God refuses to let us remain in sorrow. His prophets preached hope to Israel until that Hope was born at Bethlehem. Since then, the human race has been able – literally – to touch hope. Christ, Emmanuel, God-with-us, speaks words of consolation to those burdened by anxiety, sickness, worry, heartache, guilt, trouble, and pain. And he lives among us, especially in the Eucharist. Advent is a daily reminder of God’s hope.
So I dare you. No, I double-dare you. Allow that hope into your life!
Be assured of my prayers,
Fr. Steve