Expecting the Reign - Be Hopeful

THE WORD IN ADVENT - First week Tuesday

December 5, 2023: Isaiah 11:1-10; Luke 10: 21-24 

Expectation is all about hope! Expecting the Reign consists of hoping, not just hoping, but hoping against hope. St. Paul uses this phrase in relation to Abraham, as someone who hoped against hope (Romans 4:18). Expecting without hope is such a disappointing and schizofrenic act, don't you think? 

Today the Word gives a subtle imagery of this type of hope, hope in the face of possible hopelessness. Is it not needed today when we see so much violence around, so much disrespect for human persons and communities, so much hatred in the air, and so much of sectarianism spread with hidden agenda? The imagery is in the very first line of the first reading: the shoot from the stock of Jesse, the scion from the roots! The stock of Jesse... imagine a shoot: where do we find them? In the newest of branches in a tree, or in the roots? Here we see the scion from the roots. Which means it is a tree that is cut to its stock, to its roots... a case of having given up on it. But there thrusts a scion from the roots! That is hope against hope!

Jesus in the Gospel, who is already tired of his failure to make the great learned ones and those in authority understand his message - in a state when he has to lose hope, rejoices! "I bless you Father," he gladly exclaims, that the Lord has made the children, the little ones understand the truth. Expecting the unexpected is the hope of Advent. Look at all the imageries given by Isaiah in the first reading, for the Reign of God. 

The first week of advent is dedicated to the theme of hope and today we have that message strong: to hope! To be hopeful is a necessary trait of those who truly expect the Reign!