Venezuela, 12/06/2022, Sr. Nícida Amparo Díaz.- Most of our hope is anchored in mundane things, that is, in the things that, as human beings, we live and suffer,...

Hasta que el Alba nos abraceWhere is our hope?

Most of our hope is anchored in mundane things, that is, in the things that, as human beings, we live and suffer, namely health, the political, social, religious, economic situation, the community reality, our relationships,…we hope that all this situation we are experiencing can be resolved, but we do not see a horizon, and we worry, and we get anguished and impatient and we become disenchanted and stressed and devastated…and our faith and hope are losing strength and we lose peace .

We lose Peace, because our hope is anchored in the purely human horizon, even if we say that we hope in God, that we are women and men of faith and hope and wear ourselves out for the things of God. But it turns out that, in this effort, in this work, in this exhaustion for the things of God, we are working for Him, but without Him... we put all our effort, all our strength in our limited humanity, which is finite, weak, exposed to expiration and, we can't do everything! Distracted and overwhelmed we forget that in God is our hope...

Rise up, Jerusalem!

Arise Jerusalem! Listen to the voice of your God, who knocks on your door and knocks! It is the little hope that we carry in our hearts, and it says good morning to us every morning; He tells us: Get up, there is still a lot to do and not everything is finished, get up and put yourself in the horizon of God, work for Him and with Him... Everything will be different; It is about integrating our human horizon into the divine horizon, working from God, from his proposal, always sustained by his Word, by his Fidelity, by the strength of his Grace, because it is enough for us. …

When we lose hope, we close all possibilities and embrace Narciso... and we live, "as I see it, I live", "let's eat and drink, because tomorrow we will die" distracted by our daily worries; we get used to living like this, hopeless, without the strength to think of humanizing alternatives...

We look at time from a chronological perspective, and give way to the syndrome of impatience, of immediacy; we lose our ability to dream, to hope, to create and recreate. We forget that we are trained for Hope.

"Kierkegaard defines hope as "the passion for the possible" but emphasizing the pathos element, that painful and joyful love that unites the human heart to what it hopes for or what it feels nostalgic for... Moltman defined it as "the dawn of the awaited, a new day that irradiates everything with its light”, showing that living hope means “bringing the future of God to the present of the world. Waiting, in summary, implies the awareness, more or less suffered, of something or someone that is not there now, and I feel that I need it.”[1]

In our daily life, we expect not only things or situations, we also expect people, their presence, their word, who give us strength, encouragement, comfort and also give us light... From our Christian faith, hope is in Someone: "Oh God You are my God, because of you I get up early, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearns for you, like parched land parched without water... in bed I remember you and watching I meditate on you" (Ps 62, 2-7 ). Hope, placed on the horizon of God, assumes and surpasses natural hope, and helps us to discern and recognize the Presence of God that is passing, that is coming.

From God's horizon, we understand that for the Christian who believes in God and believes in his Word, time is not only chronological. Time is Kairological, it is God's time that passes through our life, through our history, which is always happening. Hence his invitation: "Be prepared because the Son of man will arrive when you least expect it" (Mt 24:44). "Pay attention, do not allow yourself to be stunned by vice, drunkenness and the worries of life, so that that day does not suddenly surprise you" (Lk 21;34).

For the believing Christian, being prepared does not have force in the future but in the present, because the Lord surprises us in the today of our life, therefore, what we do today in relation to our brothers and sisters prepares the future for us. future: "I was hungry (today) and you gave me to eat, I was thirsty (today) and you gave me to drink... "It is from the welcome of the God who comes that we guarantee our being with Him forever: Come blessed by my Father, because I came to you and you received me...

Get up and look at the Dawn on the horizon...

Hope is dynamic and not static, it puts us in vigilant mode, this expectant attitude is proven in the commitment to our people, it makes us stand up, to go out at dawn, to let ourselves be embraced by it, to give reason for the hope that we carry within (1 Pt 3,15), which moves us to humanize our humanity, the place where God, only God made himself present, made himself human and from that day on told us that every man and every woman is a meeting place with The; it is an event of salvation.

Being vigilant means remaining in prayer until dawn embraces us, envelops us in its light, like the shepherds in Bethlehem, and we can hear the Good News of salvation that fills us with peace and joy, that puts us in I walk like sisters...

We need to carry ourselves in Hope, we need to support ourselves in our walk, to be enchanted, to live seeking the world that God wants, and we with Him, want... that new humanity, lover of the poor, dedicated in life to others, crossing borders! until reaching the existential peripheries where life cries out. That new humanity that knows how to abandon itself in God, because his Grace is enough for it.

Let us remain in hope seeking what we hope for and when the Expected One comes, may he find us loving, serving and giving life as Good News of salvation, wherever we live, move and exist.

Celebration

Song: Color de esperanza… Levántate Jerusalén... Esperaba, esperaba…

We admire…

We announce…

Symbols: The four Advent candles

1 candle: Hope

2 candle: Patience

3 candle: Humility

4th candle: Dawn: God's dream…it will be my dream. A world where Peace triumphs and Peace triumphs in fraternity, in sisterhood...in the mystical encounter...

The big candle: dawn awakening…

Two movements on the way out: See and Announce…

[1] Amadeo Cencini. Libera la esperanza. Pág. 14ss