First Sunday of Advent: The Week of Hope

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Did you know that every week of Advent has a theme associated with it?

The theme of the first week of Advent is hope.

To fully enter into this week of Advent, we really need a better understanding of hope as defined by Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

What Hope Is Not

Perhaps because we have not been taught well, perhaps because we’ve forgotten what we were taught, we too often equate words like “hope’ with a worldly or cultural understanding of the word. That can be very damaging to our faith, because we miss out on what God is really promising us.

Our culture exclusively understands “hope” in terms of the emotion of hope. Hope is the emotion we experience when we have a desire for something we perceive as good, and we know that it will be difficult to get but possible. So we say things like, “I hope I do well on this test.” And there’s nothing wrong with that . . . as far as it goes.

But when we say things like, “I hope I go to Heaven when I die,” what do we mean by this? Sure, we identify Heaven as a good things that is highly desirable and that is difficult but possible to get. But is that all? Is that what we celebrate during this week of Advent?

The very fact that I’m asking the question hints at the answer, doesn’t it? NO! This is not all.

And the full understanding of hope is really something to celebrate – and to work to build in our lives.

The Theological Virtue of Hope

Hope - Trust in God - is like an anchor in the storm, keeping our relationship with God steady in stormy times.

Hope – Trust in God – is like an anchor in the storm, keeping our relationship with God steady in stormy times.

When Saint Paul talks about hope, he isn’t just talking about emotions (though the emotion of hope will always be part of our experience – we are human, after all). Saint Paul is talking about what the Church has come to call the “Theological Virtue of Hope.” What is that?

A Theological Virtue is a specific grace given to us at baptism. Its purpose is “actuate” sanctifying grace. In other words, a Theological Virtue helps us to build our relationship with God. The fact that a Theological Virtue is a grace shows us that God initiates the relationship. Grace makes a relationship with God possible. But a relationship requires the participation of both parties. And God wants us to have a REAL relationship with Him. So He gives us the three Theological Virtues – Faith, Hope and Charity – the same way He gives us our physical muscles. We do nothing to earn them, but if we don’t exercise them they atrophy. If we do our part and exercise them, they strengthen and grow – and so our relationship with God strengthens and grows.

As a Theological Virtue, Hope represents the first step in relationship building – building trust. When we say we “hope” for Heaven, we are also saying that we trust in the promises that Jesus made to us – that His Sacrifice and Resurrection has conquered sin and death for us and that His grace will change our hearts and bring us to Heaven.

So our hope in this sense is entirely in Our Savior. It’s not in some blind fate. It’s not in ourselves. And it’s not empty desire. It’s TRUST in Jesus.

Exercising Hope

But this is an active trust, not passive. If we really have this hope, we exercise it in a number of ways:

  • We actively seek grace in the Sacraments (especially the Holy Eucharist and Reconciliation).
  • We actively seek to cooperate with grace by working for conversion of heart – conquering our sin and turning our hearts toward goodness and love.
  • We persevere in our relationship with God, no matter how much we struggle, how much we suffer, or how much we are persecuted. This perseverance comes to us by keeping our eyes on the prize – realizing that our relationship with God is so much more important than anything we suffer or struggle with in this world.

The beauty of this is that even in the effort we put forth to cooperate with the virtue of Hope, we are participating in our relationship with God. Holiness – and Heaven – isn’t just a matter of “getting there some day.” It’s really about actively participating NOW in the relationship that will be perfected in Heaven.

So this Advent, think of specific ways that you can exercise the virtue of hope. What will you do? Please let us know in the comments below!

Join us this Advent for quick reflections like this one on the meaning of each week of Advent and free access to a 5-video series on the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary!

Don't Miss a Thing! Follow "From the Abbey" on Social Media!

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinrssyoutubeinstagram



Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

2 Comments

  1. Fr. James Kurzynski on November 30, 2015 at 6:46 pm

    Thanks Jeff! You helped me embrace hope tonight!

    • Jeffrey Arrowood on December 1, 2015 at 11:39 pm

      Thanks Fr. James! I’m glad you found it inspiring!

Leave a Comment





For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

If you agree to these terms, please click here.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.