Faith and Hope
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent
Gospel: Lk 1:57-66
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122325.cfm
Faith and hope both require doubt. If you don’t have doubt, faith and hope would be knowing with certainty. We have doubt, but then we also have moments and experiences that reaffirm us in our faith which also gives us hope. Faith is regarding what is, hope is faith in what is to be. Faith is past and present; hope is future focused. Today’s gospel is a story of faith and hope. The miracles that happened to Elizabeth and Zachariah were recognized by the people around them. In seeing these miracles, the people were reassured about their faith as they also had hope in who John would become. They didn’t know exactly who or what he would be, the future wasn’t written yet, but they sensed it would be something special.
Now, what if God similarly has faith and hope in us? But how can God have faith and hope in us if God already knows everything? This is part of the incarnational mystery. At the first incarnation of creation, God gave us the divine spark. God trusted that creation would bring into being what God wanted to be brought into being. God let go of certainty so that we could truly participate in God through our own choosing. We weren’t created to automatically carry out God’s providence but to choose God’s providence. God took a risk with creation. God took a risk with all of us, individually and communally. This was the same for John and Jesus and those surrounding them. Their destinies weren’t written during their lives. They always had the option to choose otherwise. Every moment they could choose otherwise. That’s part of being human. With the second incarnation, God gave up on certitude by becoming human in Jesus, and God the Father put faith and hope that Jesus, through his own choosing, would fulfill the divine mission.
When we listen to the message of Jesus on the kingdom of God, the kingdom is not brought about for us by God alone, but through us making a choice to participate in it. God is counting on us as God counted on John and Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Zachariah and Elizabeth. God keeps putting faith and hope in us. God’s kingdom will come for us if we so choose. While we’ll always have God’s grace and forgiveness, God wants more for us and from us. The for and the from are one and the same as it’s always in our choosing that God is more fully revealed for us and for others.
As we celebrate this Christmas, may we grow in faith and hope as we also accept and take responsibility for the faith and hope God puts in us. It is in this shared faith and hope that we experience love of God and love of neighbor.
