Homily Notes First Sunday of Advent 2018
1st Sunday of Advent, “Why are We Hopeful?”
“Pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and the strength to stand before the Son of Man.” Whew! We have some heavy words to ponder this week. The scriptures speak of times of tribulation. Tribulation happens in every generation. Perhaps the difference is how each generation meets the challenges in the time they live.
We have heard the term, “The Greatest Generation.” George H. Bush died this weekend. He was a member of this generation. Just think of what he was like. The words “greatest generation” refer to a book by Tom Brokaw. The world generation he refers to, lived through the great depression as children. After that, they lived through WWII. Some fought in that war. All made sacrifices for the war effort so that tyranny would be defeated. In those times there was, as Brokaw describes, a sense of common purpose. Perhaps our society was united as it never was before. Was it a perfect time? No. But people shared common ideals. Freedom, Justice, self-determination, honesty, integrity were all values that everyone seemed to agree on. Also, there was a sense of charity, people also believed no one should be too full of themselves. Yes, there were criminals and scoundrels around. But everyone seemed to agree what acceptable behavior was.
What is our society like today? Two symptoms we could point to today affirm that there is an underlying pessimism in our country. One reality is a story that came in the media this week that the average life expectancy has gone down in our country for the second straight year. Now this is the first time that something like that has happened since the AIDs epidemic in the 1990’s. Why has life expectancy decreased? Two reasons are given. One reason is because of the opioid crisis in our country. More and more people are becoming addicted and dying in our society. Addiction is, most often, an attempt to escape unhappiness in life. Life expectancy also has decreased because the suicide rate is going up every year. Since 1999 suicides have gone up 33%
Another reality that seems to be a symptom of the turmoil we feel in our country is that atheism is steadily on the rise. Statistics tell us that 10% of people no longer believe in God. And there is even a higher percentage of people do not practice any kind of religious faith.
All of this leads to a sense of despair in our world. The “Greatest Generation’s” chief virtue was resiliency. Somehow, they made it through the darkest hours becoming stronger. How did they do that?
Perhaps it was because they never lost a sense of purpose, a belief that there was meaning to life. If we have meaning and purpose in our life, we have hope. Hope, along with Faith and Love are one of the core virtues of Christian life. A hopeless Christian is a contradiction in terms.
As Christians how would we answer the question, “Why are you hopeful?” If we have not thought about it lately, maybe we need to. Such reflection during this Advent season can be of benefit to us, but also others. Christians are hopeful for any number of reasons.
One primary reason for Christian hope is that we have goals for our life. One goal is to pattern our life after Jesus. We should don’t feel like it is enough to say we believe in Jesus. We want to become Jesus. So, we try to be people who are humble servants in the world constantly trying to make it a better place for everyone else. People who are concerned for others usually feel a lot more fulfilled than those that aren’t. Depression comes from being too ego centered. Another goal that we have in life is that we wish to get to heaven. We don’t get too caught up in the pursuit of status, material prosperity or power in this world because we realize that this world is transitory. Heaven is forever.
Another reason we are hope filled, is, that if we live the Christian life in all its fullness, we sense the importance of community. We are never striving alone, but we have our brothers and sisters in Christ with us each step of the way. Wherever we go in the world, there are other Christians who love as we seek to love, who love us even though they do not know us. To feel no one cares leads to sadness. To share the journey with others who have the faith we have leads to hope. Each Eucharist is an affirmation that we are not alone.
During this Advent, our parish will sing about hope each time we gather for Sunday Mass. We will have evening prayer each Sunday. The theme will be hope. Let’s use these four weeks to reflect on why we are hopeful. If we do maybe just a little sadness will be driven out of the world.
Please note: rough draft, grammar may not be perfect.