Advent: A Season of Hope

'To hope is to risk frustration. Therefore, make up your mind to risk frustration.'

 

These words of Thomas Merton, the Cistercian hermit who lived in the wilds of Kentucky during the middle of the twentieth century, can be found in a little chapter entitled 'Sentences' in his Seeds of Contemplation. These writings are the fruit of his silent meditation on the words of scripture and his contemplation of the divine mystery. No doubt the life of a solitary hermit could be challenging at times. It could be frustrating.  Merton reminds us that 'to hope is to risk frustration'. 

 

The season of Advent, which begins this coming Sunday, is a season of hope. We look forward to the story of the nativity at Christmas, the coming of Christ, but this story rehearses another story, the promise of Christ's second coming and the advent of the Kingdom of God. One of the characteristics of Advent is a sense of anticipation, a sense of longing, a sense of waiting. But if we are truthful, most of us can sometimes find waiting rather uncomfortable and frustrating. The best laid plans can sometime be derailed. Events intervene. Our expectations may not be fulfilled. But Merton reminds us that however difficult that experience may be, the seed of that frustration is something that is beautiful and holy and good: it is the virtue of hope. St Paul describes hope as one of the great theological virtues, alongside faith and love. And it is important to recognise that hope is more reticent than optimism or despair. It does not profess to know the future - but it is willing to imagine a future that is bigger than the past.

 

We live in a world in which hope often seems to be in short supply. But the season of Advent confronts us with a particular challenge - to embrace the virtue of hope. 

 

May I wish all of you a blessed and hopeful Advent.

 

William Lamb