Third Sunday of Advent
Reflection
Reasons for Radical Hope on the Third Sunday of Advent
Friends, let us pause in this season, this Third Sunday of Advent, and cast our minds back not to our struggles, but to our triumphs of hope!
Did we not look upon the barren deserts of our lives, the steppes of our despair, and yearn for the blossoming of life? And did the Almighty not grant our desperate plea, allowing those dry lands to bloom again with plants and flowers of astonishing color and resilience? Yes, they bloomed, reminding us that new hopes for the future are not merely dreams, but reasonable expectations within the architecture of God’s divine plan!
We have been granted the human condition, including the visitation of sickness—a trial which, though it masks itself as hardship, is yet another opportunity for grace.
Did we not cry out for healing and renewed strength? And were we not, in turn, showered with restoration, reminding us that the wellspring of divine favor never runs dry?
And when the shadow of terror—the paralyzing fear of grievous wounds and the ultimate specter of death—darkened our doorway, did we not lift our voices in a plea to be spared, to be saved? And were we not delivered? We were.
Therefore, let us recall these fulfilled hopes that we chose to celebrate from time to time. We leapt, somersaulted, belted out songs, danced in circles, hugged each other, and gave out generous presents! May we never forget that past deliverances herald future deliverances.
Let this awareness assure us that today’s path leading to Bethlehem, trod now for the two thousandth and twenty-fifth time, is not a path of uncertainty, but one that abounds with a high-odds kind of hope for our rightful place in God’s kingdom and according to God’s will. And shouldn’t we bolster that hope with every conscious effort, every sincere prayer, and every willful open door to His supreme wisdom?
This Christmas season, we can opt to cast aside those dire, paralyzing worries! Let us toss the gloom of despair into the abyss of the past! Instead, let us strike up the band! Let the music rise to back our lifted voices as we sing the most hopeful words we can find in all of Christendom.
