Thursday, December 10, 2009
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Good morning, and welcome back to our reflection this week on how we can prepare our hearts to welcome the Child Jesus, and ask Him specifically for spiritual gifts that help us grow in holiness and grace. I am Fr. Jim Caldwell, pastor at St. Joseph Catholic Church, and it is truly a blessing to share with you a faith filled experience of God’s presence and love in our lives.
St. Paul in his letter to Titus writes in Chapter 3, verses 6 and 7: “…whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by His grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.” In St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews he also says: “…let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. And let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for He who made the promise is trustworthy.” (10:22-23)
Today’s gift to ask God for as we prepare for Christ Jesus to enter our lives is the gift of HOPE. This gift of hope can be a great source of happiness and strength because it motivates our hearts to anticipate and look forward to the promise of the Kingdom of God and to the promises that God has made and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
In a general way, if we have hope, we have life. Hope helps us look forward as well as challenges us to do well in life. It is the impetus in some ways of why we as a society are stuck in the mode of shopping for Christmas. We shop because we are anticipating the joy and happiness our family and friends will have when they open this gift that hopefully is the right gift for the right reasons. We look forward to this day, December 24th or 25th when in joy we can present our gifts to our family and friends to see their expression. We hope that they will appreciate and like the thoughtful gift that seems to express a love and concern for them.
We also hope for events and experiences that lead to positive experiences in life. We hope, for example, that a doctor’s report will indicate that the cancer is benign and not malignant. We hope that the exams we take help increase our wisdom and knowledge of the subjects we are studying. We hope that our Christmas celebrations will be with family we love, rather than family with whom we are estranged from. We hope that one day our family will be together to celebrate in joy the blessings of familial relationships. We hope that the sun will continue to shine and brighten our day.
In all these examples, the hope is for something in the future that will be long lasting and treasured in our hearts. Yet we know that at times, what we hope for often falls short of our desires. We know that when we place our hope in things of this world, we lose sight of the things in our life which matter, not material things, but experiences that connect our heart, mind, body and souls together. When we connect at these levels, the gift of hope increases because it requires that we actively pursue these goals and dreams in life that change our hearts. We can hope all we want to pass the exam, but if we do not put the effort into studying, we fail to put that hope into reality. We can hope that we will be remembered by others, but unless we act in a spirit of charity and love toward others, we will not achieve anything at all. In other words, our hope, if rooted in this world will falter quickly because we fail to assist ourselves and others to use hope as a catapult for happiness and peace that is internal.
Therefore, the gift of hope we are seeking is the gift which keeps us going day after day. It is the gift of hope that the life we live and experience draws us to do great things for the sake of the Kingdom of God. This is the higher realm of hope that truly sustains us and puts our actions, deeds and experiences in a new light. This deeper understanding of hope enables us to move beyond the worldly allurements and see that relationships with others take work. This hope enables us to see that having our hearts prepared to welcome the Child Jesus into our lives means we take time to assess how we are living and sharing the love God bestows on us with others.
This kind of hope enables us to put our motivations and aspirations into perspective as we begin to understand how God truly blesses us with many gifts and talents. With these gifts, we can utilize the endowment of hope to determine the course of action that roots us in being Disciples of Christ Jesus. We are promoting this virtue of Hope now, because the time is right to prioritize and put into perspective our vocation in life. When we hope in God, we discover a deeper sense of peace and joy because of the grace God bestows from this gift. When we open our hearts and accept this gift of hope, we realize that every single day is a new day to prepare for Christ to come. We do not have to wait until December 25th, or January 1, or your birthday, or the second Tuesday of next week. In hope, we experience the Child Jesus smashing our stony hearts and revealing how much He is with us every day.
In asking God for the gift of hope, we are asking for an increase in knowledge of who He is for us, why He has called us to do His will, and how we can succeed in growing in holiness and grace. We can use this gift of hope as a means to pray, live, love and learn. How does this hope manifest itself in our hearts and lives? It starts by first understanding that hope animates our inner thoughts and feelings to seek God and His love in our lives. Hope helps us not to be discouraged when the temporal world collapses around us. Hope sustains us during the times we feel abandoned or unloved. Hope becomes the life preserver that is tossed to us by God in order to lift us up and fill us with His love. Hope becomes the celebration of hearts prepared in love to welcome the Child Jesus into our hearts and lives. It is hope that stirs our passions to find and seek God in every action and experience in our lives. This hope is more than simply optimism. It is an anchor in God that keeps us afloat in the ups and downs of life.
One great way to increase this gift of Hope within our hearts is to mediate on the Our Father. This prayer, spoken by Jesus for us to pray is a great way to ask God. The power of the Lord’s Prayer is found in how it sums up for us our wants, needs and desires in life. It is a prayer of hope because as we voice in word and thought this prayer, we are drawn to the belief that through Jesus Christ, He will hear and answer our prayers and enkindle in our hearts the gift of hope. This prayer also challenges us to serve God in a spirit of faithfulness and love. We are called in hope to put into action the Gospel of Love. We are instructed by the prophets to prepare our hearts for Christ to come again.
Let us seek the gift of hope in our hearts and lives so as to understand that the spiritual gifts we desire far outweigh the material things of this world. Invite the Holy Spirit to enkindle this hope within our heart so as to love better, forgive more, serve others, and be Christ like in our lives. Confront in life the fears and addictions that dampen the hope of Christ to live in our hearts. Ponder the heavenly gift of the Kingdom of God that we hope to share in one day. Inspire others to achieve hope in God by preparing for God’s many blessings He willingly pours out for us. Continue to pray each day, petitioning the Lord to hear our prayers. Drawing on this petition for hope, we conclude with the prayer Jesus taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
May God continue to bless us and fill us with hope as we anticipate with joy Christ’s presence among us. May Almighty God bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Have a very blessed and hopeful day today.
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