(First Sunday of Advent (C): This homily was given on November
28, 2021 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:4-14; 1
Thessalonians 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-36.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: First Sunday of Advent 2021]
Today’s homily is all about hope.
With this in mind, I will now describe three people to you. Based solely on the details given in these brief biographical notes, which one of these men can be said to possess the theological virtue of hope?
· John always looks on the bright side. In fact, he’s constantly singing that song, “Always look on the bright side of life . . . “ If you presented him with a partly-filled glass of water, he would definitely tell you it was half-full, not half-empty. Sadly, last month John lost his job, his mother died, he lost thousands of dollars trading stocks, and he found out he has terminal cancer. But he still maintains his upbeat, positive attitude. He’s absolutely convinced that things will get much, much better in the very near future.
- Jim is quite wealthy, but he dearly loves to gamble. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday he goes to the local casino for several hours; on the other days of the week he goes to the dog track; and, in between, he buys lottery tickets by the hundreds. But he loses big bucks every single day without fail. And yet, he continues on, undaunted. When he wakes up each morning the first sentence out of his mouth is, “Today will be my lucky day!”
- Joe is a
New Ager who believes that it’s essential to harness the “positive energy
force of the cosmos” for personal growth and self-actualization. With the help of Reiki, channeling,
crystals, and positive thinking, he’s convinced that he’s attaining a
higher consciousness and evolving into a more perfect human life
form. And he looks forward to being
reincarnated several times in the new millennium, so that he can get rid
of all his bad karma and finally attain the spiritual enlightenment of the
great “ascended masters” of the universe.
So—based solely on these details, which of these men possesses the theological virtue of hope?
The correct answer is: None of them does!
John who always looks on the bright side of life is a perennial optimist; Jim the rich gambler is a delusional addict who needs to face that fact and get himself to a Gamblers’ Anonymous meeting as soon as possible; and Joe the New Ager is a gnostic idealist who mistakenly thinks he can create his own heaven on earth! But none of them possesses the theological gift of hope!
Perhaps many of you chose John out of the three. That’s understandable, because in our culture the word “hope” is often used to signify optimism. You’re called a “hopeful person” if have an upbeat, positive attitude about your own life and the future. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking optimism. Personally, I usually prefer optimists to pessimists; most of us probably do. But Christian hope and human optimism are not the same thing, and we need to be clear about that. In fact, you can be a terrible pessimist, and, at the same time, be a person of deep, profound, confident, Christian hope! Now I’m sure it would be more pleasant for your relatives and friends if you had a slightly more positive attitude as you went through life, but the fact that you may be a pessimist does not prevent you from having hope. Actually, that’s an added reason for you to seek the gift of hope: it will keep you from despair in the midst of your horrible pessimism!
Listen, now, to how the Catechism defines hope in paragraph 1817:
Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. [As the Letter to the Hebrews says,] “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” [And as St. Paul said to Titus], “The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.”
Christian hope is focused ultimately on heaven. Those who possess the gift of hope know that God has a kingdom prepared for them; they know that Jesus Christ died to give them this kingdom; they know that Jesus will give them everything they need to get to the kingdom; and they know they will get there, if they put their trust in Jesus Christ every day and are faithful to his Gospel message. As it says in the glossary of the Catechism, hope is “the theological virtue by which we desire and expect from God both eternal life and the grace we need to obtain it.”
If a pessimist is filled with the gift of hope, the pessimist can still smile, because he knows that even if nothing goes right for him for the rest of his earthly life, the kingdom of God still awaits him. His eyes are on the kingdom, and his faith is in Jesus Christ who paid the price for him to get there. So, deep down inside, he has peace—peace in the midst of his pessimism!
Why do I speak of this today, on the First Sunday of Advent? Specifically because of the foreboding tone of the Gospel text we just heard a few moments ago. Here, once again, Jesus speaks about the end of the world, and he does so in typically unsettling terms: “Nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. . . . Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”
From a purely human perspective, that’s not exactly the most uplifting Gospel text there is! I can think of many others which are much more comforting and appealing!
To have peace whenever you’re confronted with a passage like this, you will need more than an optimistic attitude—you will need hope in your heart! Because a passage like this has a very tough message which attacks optimism! In fact, a passage like this annihilates purely human optimism! For example, I can imagine John, the perennial optimist I mentioned at the beginning of my homily—I can imagine happy-go-lucky John reading this text, getting in touch with its message, and then calling the suicide hotline of the Samaritans!
But if John had the virtue of hope in his heart, he would respond quite differently. He would read these words, and realize that this passage was all about the ultimate fulfillment of his hope! He would understand that it’s about the final consummation of history, when his hope of attaining eternal life—body and soul in Jesus Christ—will finally be realized. And so he would have peace in his heart, in spite of the unsettling details that Jesus gives him here about the last days.
The theological gifts of faith, hope and love were first planted within us at Baptism. That’s something else the Catechism teaches us.
But we need to pray that those gifts will grow ever stronger within us. And so, when you receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ today and go back to your pew to pray, say, “Lord Jesus Christ, fill my heart with hope: the virtue of hope which is rooted in the truths of my Catholic faith; the virtue of hope that will sustain me always on my pilgrim journey to your kingdom.”
And then, if you tend to be a bit pessimistic now and again, you might also ask the Lord to give you a more optimistic attitude. It’s not the most important thing to pray for, but I think your relatives and friends would be very, very happy if you did!
