Advent of Hope

"Awake from your slumber! Arise from your sleep!
A new day is dawning for all those who weep.
The people in darkness have seen a great light.
The Lord of our longing has conquered the night."
 ~A City of God, hymn by Daniel L. Schutte

Yesterday was a marvelously peaceful and restful Sabbath, the likes of which I have not had the opportunity to have for some time.  And at the center of it was a marvelous blueberry pancake and hot apple breakfast with my fiance, his sister and her boyfriend while lighting our first Advent candle of the season, the Candle of Hope in a time of darkness.  Our little study included passages from John's Gospel, "In the beginning was the Light....," and then onto Psalms singing of the darkness and clinging to God.  And Isaiah's words are always appropriate to this season.  However, after the candles were snuffed out, I read the Gospel for that Sunday that I would have heard at mass had the fiance felt better: Mathew 24, 37- 44.

It's a passage that reminds us that the hour of HIS next coming could come at any moment, by utter surprise, when we least expect it.  The passage is an alarm, a warning.  Everything else we read points to the darkness that has enveloped the earth, and that darkness includes what lays within our very hearts.  It is a reminder that my heart has a lot of preparation before I can be ready to fully embrace the Incarnation that is coming, before I can be one of those to be taken to the New Earth.  There is much work to do to ready the party scene.

On the outside that could look like hanging decorations for the season to come, or in my case, as a student, it looks like wrapping up overdue projects..... but inside the depths of ourselves?  That takes the courage to lift up our eyes to our Lord and ask for him.  It takes a Sacrament, It takes Reconciliation.  And after that, it takes Hope to maintain our dignity in the dark.