Advent is a period of promise and of hope that might sustain us in even the hardest of times, writes Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ. Source: Melbourne Catholic.
All human lives and cultures are marked by rhythms of waiting and celebrating. Children wait impatiently for the end of term and for the beginning of the holidays. Parents sometimes wait out the last days of school holidays longing for the precious time when children return to school!
The week before football grand finals is a time of impatient waiting that explodes into the excitement of “the Big Game”.
This pattern of waiting and celebrating echoes nature’s larger rhythms – from the time to sow leads to a time to reap, from winter to spring, from reaping to harvest. These rhythms are echoed in the fixtures of the Church calendar.
The four weeks of Advent look forward to Christmas, which is followed by its own week of celebration.
Advent is a period of promise and of hope that might sustain us in even the hardest of times. The Mass readings of Advent draw again and again on the Book of Isaiah. These passages are full of an extraordinarily buoyant hope, of images of peace, of flowing waters, green fields, tree-covered hills, abundant harvests, peace, and of a God who is with the people.
Yet Isaiah’s world was one that the Jewish people, including himself, would have seen as a time of darkness, full of dark nights and dark clothing. The people had been overrun in war and sent into exile.
Today, we might recall the suffering of those who have been displaced by conflicts in places like Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza.
In contrast, Isaiah’s vision of a return to their own land in peace, where they would enjoy respect and plenty, is painted in bright technicolour. He does not describe their current miserable life in exile as the new normal but as a time of waiting for return to a glorious new world.
Advent today encourages us to enter the experience of people in our own world who are exiled from their home, wait on the kindness of strangers for survival, and survive as best they can. Among these are refugees, who share the experience of Isaiah and the Jewish people.
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Worth the wait: a reflection for the beginning of Advent (By Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ, Melbourne Catholic)
