I must confess that I have always struggled to understand hope. Faith seems to be mentioned all throughout the bible and we are told we need only a little to flourish, just the size of a mustard seed. Likewise, perhaps when St. Paul says out of “Faith, hope, and love, the greatest is love” what he really may have meant is that love is the easiest to write about. 

In one of Greg Boyle’s books he writes, “the pregnant heart is driven to hopes that are the wrong size for this world.” This is why the season of Advent is truly countercultural. Society begins to flow with a momentum containing shopping, media, advertisements, and lots of lights and sounds. However, Christians turn to a season of waiting, which is grounded in peace and quiet. Similar to Lent, the worship space should be decorated more modestly. The Gloria is not sung at most Masses during the season of Advent either. That is countercultural to the lights and sounds of the television and shopping departments during this time of year.

We are hoping for a Messiah that will be born into a poor family in a manger. We are hoping for a peaceful and loving King that will ride into the city on a donkey rather than a war horse. We are hoping for a God that will die on a cross. We are hoping in a God that will return once again. All of these require hope that is “the wrong size for this world” because God is so much greater than this world can imagine or contain. 

I continue to confess that I still struggle to clearly define hope as a virtue. However, I do know that our hope is often defined by the object that we place our hope in or hope for. I pray that this Advent you find the peace and quiet of a simply decorated church and meditate on where you place your own hope. I trust this will allow your heart to be overflowed with hope in God, our Messiah and Savior. 

“Everything that’s done, is done by hope.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.