Spiritual Perspectives
Hurry Up-Wait-Hope

By Sister Mary Matthias Ward
Special to the Independent

Sometimes when I watch the news or read the newspaper I experience gloom and doom. Often I think, “If only for a week all the newscasts and all the newspapers would only tell stories of all the good things going on in our cities, in our world!” Wouldn’t that be fantastic? If all of us would leave off gossip for one week and only speak good things, think of the HOPE that would confront us.

Recently I was handed an article about Charles Dickens: “It is currently said that hope goes with youth, and lends to youth its wings of a butterfly; but I fancy that hope is the last gift given to man, and the only gift not given to youth. Youth is pre-eminently the period in which a man can be lyric, fanatical, and poetic; but youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged; God has kept that good wine until now. It is from the backs of the elderly gentlemen that the wings of the butterfly should burst.”

Wikipedia states that “HOPE is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life. Hope implies a certain amount of perseverance, believing that a positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary.” The Catholic Catechism says, “Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.”

I love the season of Advent. For me it is a time of HURRY UP-WAIT-HOPE! I recall a border in my classroom. It had pictures of some of the Old Testament prophets with the words: THEY WAITED… then it had the pictures of the students with the words:  WE WAIT. And of the many classroom decorations over the many years that one remains clearly. Why? It is a true fact.  No other season brings me such excitement as does the season of Advent. There is that sense of hurry up… hurry up and get gifts… hurry up and write cards… hurry up and decorate… hurry up and get the menu in place.

Then wait!  Wait for others. Wait for the holiday season to begin. Wait for Christmas carols to be sung. Wait for the first snow. Wait for parties. Wait for the celebration of the coming of Jesus. And in the midst of the HURRY UP and the WAIT mingles HOPE.

The hope of good things… the hope of salvation… the hope for the birth of the divine in our own lives… the hope to make a difference in the world around us… the hope that there is a God and God has a plan and that we are part of that plan.

And we wait and we hope with Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, John, with the shepherds and with the Magi. Yet, as we hope we don’t just focus on the Christ Child. We know that he was born to bear the cross.

As we open gifts let us know that the “greatest gift” was nailed to the cross and that through him all gifts have come… peace, joy, forgiveness, hope and faith.

During this season of Advent, during this season of HURRY UP-WAIT, let us maintain HOPE. For us it may be the hope that leads the shepherds to take the angels’ announcement and move forward to finding the child in the crib; or it may be the hope of the Magi who followed a star, leading them from the unknown to the known.  We know that HOPE is nourished in prayer. So, we pray: God of Hope, Giver of Hope, during this season of preparing, of getting ready, help us to hope for eternal life with you.

Sister Mary Matthias Ward is an Ursuline Sister of Maple Mount, Ky.  She is the delegate to Bishop Pelotte for the women religious of the diocese and is the director of Sacred Heart Retreat Center. She can be reached at (505) 870-5679 or 722-6755.

This column is written by area residents, representing different faith communities, who share their ideas about bringing a spiritual perspective into our daily lives and community issues. For information about contributing a guest column, contact Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola at The Independent: (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or lizreligion01@yahoo.com.