In the days while he was still a Cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI wrote:

The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart’s memory so that it can discern the star of hope. It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.

The paradox of Advent is that it invites us to look forward by looking back. The readings at Mass are, after all, about past happenings. They tell the story of a homesick people long ago coming home from exile through a desert made friendly by a caring God, of an anguished people being comforted by a listening God, of a spirit-filled messenger impassioned by a just God and sent with hope to the oppressed, healing to the broken-hearted, and freedom to prisoners and captives.They recall the “yes” of a young woman to an angel sent by a loving God, and the birth of her baby in a stable.

These are all stories from the distant past. They are the rehearsal of the Church’s great history of memories. They are recited again during Advent to awaken our hearts’ memory, so that it can discern in those stories the star of hope. For there are deserts in our time, too. There is Darfur. Surely the God who created a way out of the desert for the ancient Israelites will find a way to give a break to these tormented people of Sudan. There is the anguish of hundreds of people losing their jobs. Will they, too, like the Israelites of old, somehow be comforted? There are the poor, the oppressed, the broken-hearted, the unfree, many of them in our own classrooms. Can we be messengers of hope, healing and freedom to our own flesh and blood?

There is, though, the “yes” of the Maiden. Could we, by our “yes” to God’s word, spoken and Made Flesh, transform the greed that bedevils our world, withholds wealth, and hurts the earth? The answer to these last two questions is, of course, “yes, we can.” And we do. As well as the readings we hear at Mass, reflection on the things we have done in our schools, even since last September, awakens memories of goodness: our efforts to make each belong, our sharing with those less fortunate than ourselves, our walking together in pilgrimage, our nurture of the earth and its resources, our worshipping together as the one body of Christ, our looking out for one another in our daily struggles, our rejoicing with one another as we celebrate success, our little courtesies which are such reflections of the grace of God. Herein, above all, lies the source of our hope, and it is to open doors of hope that Advent calls us, first in our own hearts and then in the hearts of those around us.

Jerry Creedon
Faith Formation Animator