2020 comes to its last month. It has been a strange year! So little of what we planned has happened. So many dreams have had to be re-imagined and so many hopes have been dashed….

Or is that so? We sometimes use the term “hope” without thinking. We hope it will be fine tomorrow. We hope that the food tastes nice. We hope the train will be on time (or maybe even a little late, if we are short of time!)> Hope is often equated with wishes and aspirations, but we might like to delve a little deeper.

Hope for Christians is the vision of our journey under the guidance of the Spirit and into the Mystery of God. That sounds a little complicated but it simply means that hope is that position that sees how God might be active in aspects of our life, drawing us into life with Him and calling us to see how everything can be turned to the Good for those who love God (c.f. Rom. 8).

In this time of Advent, we celebrate hope. Yes, it is a difficult time. Yes, there is fear and disappointment. yes, there is silent anger and disillusionment. Yet there is also the powerful and beautiful reminder, on the part of nature, that time is moving. The spring of fear has passed.The summer of disappointment has passed. The autumn of boredom has passed. Now we face winter and with it the time of darkness, but that same darkness can allow us to see the light in a more vivid and clearer manner.

That is hope: it is daring to see the light in the time of darkness. Along with hope often comes another Advent companion, Wisdom. With hope and Wisdom, we enter this cold dark time, discovering something of the beauty of knowing that it can all lead us to the joy of God’s presence to us!