The Gift of Hope

When I think about the terrible things happening in our world and in the familes of friends, I start to feel a hard, sinking sense of hopelessness. You too?

But I am not hopeless.

As a Christian, I have been given the gift of hope.

This Advent, I’m remembering something that St. Peter told us in his first letter: “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence.”[i] So why, surrounded by news of violence, addiction, and hate, do I remain hopeful?

Because of Jesus Christ.

God’s Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, so that we may truly know who we are: images of the Divine. We may not act like it at times, and some of us humans may reject our eternal realities outright. But through Christ, we are offered divine forgiveness for our sins, our transgressions, our barbaric acts of cruelty against others and ourselves. Jesus suffered the effects of our human sinfulness, suffered with us and died for us — with us — on the Cross so that our sinfulness would not mean the eternal death of us. Christ’s resurrection from the dead opens the bliss of eternal life for all who follow Him, all who seek and, therefore, receive God’s mercy.

The Savior of the World declares, “In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”[ii]

With and through Christ, we can overcome the world.

Hope is Christ within.

We are not made for eternal death and destruction. We are made for life, true life. But Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”[iii] This is the Eucharist, of which we eat and drink, the sacramental presence of Jesus, the bread and wine that have become the Body and Blood of Christ. This is no less Jesus nourishing us in every moment of our lives as Christians — He feeds, nurtures, and sustains every aspect of our living when we receive Him as Lord of our lives. He abides in us and we abide in Him.

And we are encouraged. We are enlivened. We are emboldened.

When the tragic circumstances of our lives make us feel like crumbling in despair, Christ within us bolsters us. When the atrocities committed in this world tempt us to give up and devolve into vengeance, Christ within us revives our goodness. We know that, by the grace of God, people can change for the better and real love heals the deepest wounds. We do not give up on people who are mentally ill, addicted to drugs, terminally ill, or severely disabled because God has created each and every one of us with inherent dignity and sanctity, worthy of life. We know that, whatever may come, God will lead us through every hardship, even through the valley of the shadow of death — God will never abandon us. And so we do not despair. We have hope.

This is the living hope that the world needs. Without this hope there is war, genocide, euthanasia, abortion, suicide, the death penalty, domestic violence, mass shootings, spiraling addictions — the culture of death. Only hope can build the culture of life.

Mary and Joseph are models of hope.

Mary of Nazareth was told that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit and that the son she would bear would be called Jesus, which means God saves. Yet her very pregnancy put her in danger. Betrothed but not yet fully married to Joseph, she could have been held to the extremes of the law and stoned to death for adultery. At the very least she could have been exposed to shame and ruin. Joseph did not seek any kind of vengeance upon her, planning instead to divorce her quietly. But then an angelic message in a dream told that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and that he should not fear taking Mary into his home. With his hope in the promise of the Lord, he obeyed.

All seemed well, then the couple was ordered by the government to travel to Bethlehem for the census. This journey must have had its difficulties, with Mary so heavily pregnant, but neither she nor Joseph complained or gave up. They traveled onward. Once in Bethlehem, with Mary’s time to deliver at hand, the lodging place was full and they had no safe place to stay the night. They could have despaired. But they were people of hope, and they found shelter with the animals, in the close and rather smelly quarters of a stable.

There, in the humblest of circumstances, Jesus was born, very fully human and no less divine. When the shepherds were told by heavenly hosts that the Savior of the World had come, they marveled and rejoiced. Discovering the Messiah swaddled in a feeding trough did not cause them to marvel and rejoice less, but all the more. Many times Mary could have despaired or given up on hoping in God’s promise. But she lived life as it was given to her, with every seeming setback becoming a step forward to the promised destination.

Mary lived life as it was given to her, with every seeming setback becoming a step forward to the promised destination.

Hope is like that. We do not hope for what we can already see. We hope for what we trust will be, what we expect will be (though not always in the shape or form that we might imagine) because of what we have been promised by the Creator and Master of all. This is not the kind of hope of which I had always been wary, the kind that is wishful thinking. This hope is founded in Christ, and not without reason.

Hope in the midst of despair is a light in the midst of darkness.

Although it may look like the world is going mad and it may feel like we’ll all fall into the clutches of evil one way or another, we are not afraid. Our hope is in the Lord. Although I worry about the future and fear what kind of loss and trials may be ahead of me, I am gently reminded, again and again, that perfect love drives out fear. Christ holds me lovingly and mercifully in His Sacred Heart, now and forever, and bids me not to be afraid.

So I will not give in to fears of destruction. I will not give in to my own petty greed and vengeance, nor will I give in to despair when others in the world are horribly greedy and vengeful. I will continue to believe that forgiveness heals, that grace abounds, and that all things are possible in God. And when I meet destructive people or actions, I will do so with hope. I will face every trial and tribulation with courage in Christ. That’s my pledge — (Lord, help me and have mercy upon me!)

Of course, I won’t be able to do this alone. God gave us one another so that we may support each other, encouraging the good, encouraging mercy and bravery. Thus the Lord tells us to love one another, reminding us to cheerfully give of ourselves, and encouraging us to share our reason for hope with the world.

May the Lord find us sharing gifts of hope this Advent and every day. Remember that our sacred celebrations aren’t merely remembrances or re-creations of past events — we live the sacred moments of God’s salvation again, anew, through the presence of Christ within us. Therefore, let us be filled with wonder and awe when we behold our Lord and Savior lying in a manger, poor, lowly, and little. It may seem impossible that this small baby is God in the flesh, who will grow to save us through His death and resurrection, bringing us newness of life. Just as impossible must it seem to the world that whatever happens in our lives, we carry on courageously, joyfully, steadfast in hope and mercy. By the grace of God, we will not let the light of Christ, burning brightly in our hearts, ever go out.

The newness of life in Christ is the gift of hope.

© 2023 Christina Chase

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[i] 1 Peter 3:15

[ii] John 16:33

[iii] John 6:53

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Feature Photo by Leone Venter on Unsplash