A Committed Hope
The Christian people, the people of God, are a people of hope, and that is so because their God is their hope. Adventus, in Latin is “coming.” Hence Advent is a time in the Christian calendar to reflect on the coming of Jesus as the promised Messiah.
Hope is wanting something you don't have. It is trusting that the desire will come true. It is waiting. In the biblical sense, hope is wishing, trusting, waiting, walking with a transformative praxis towards the possible. God is in us, and we are in God. It is also resistance to obstacles along the way.
The hope of a messiah of justice and peace arose after the kings of Israel did not obey God's will that they administer distributive justice to the people. With Jesus, the prophecies of the arrival of the messiah were fulfilled. But he was a different messiah from the Davidic messiah, for he did not use an army or violence to announce and establish the beginning of his kingdom. The kingdom of God was his passion and the center and essence of his message. He began preaching: “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15).
“The hope to which Jesus calls us is to desire a transformed world, in which we all have a place, dignity, where life is affirmed.”
For those who follow Jesus, believing in the gospel of the kingdom of God is living it and wishing it for everyone. It is working for its establishment in history, in the here and now. When you serve the needy, the poor, the orphan, the will of God is expressed. Also when working for the establishment of justice and law in society, the will of God is expressed.
Advent invites us to reflect on the coming of the Messiah. Jesus has already come and is with us as we practice and promote social justice. The current world with its economic, political, and religious structures does not do the will of God. The poor remain impoverished. The systemic economy drives hunger. The weapons industry generates wars, flagrantly violates human rights, and destroys natural resources, causing global warming.
For its part, politics controls power so that the rich continue to accumulate more wealth. Religion continues to play its sad role of legitimizing the power of money and weapons. Regarding the latter, a clear example is the uncritical, ahistorical, and contrary-to-the-Sermon on the Mount support of evangelical groups that blindly support the ethnic cleansing and genocide carried out by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. What is our hope regarding this world full of violence and injustice, which denies the life and love of God?
It is not easy to answer. The hope to which Jesus calls us is to desire a transformed world, in which we all have a place, dignity, where life is affirmed. For this, it is central to pray with the heart, “your kingdom come.” In this way, we will be transformed to transform, and give a dynamic push to the mission of the church, as well as fulfill the responsibility of being citizens, to advance for a real state of law and respect for human rights, an alternative society with distributive justice.
Hopelessness must be overcome with committed hope. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will make us instruments of his glory.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men! Marana-ta: The Lord is coming! “And I am with you always, to the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).
