We in Holy Cross profess to be men and women with hope to bring. Wonderful! Yet, what can this mean when, as humans, we must spend part of our lives in Isaiah’s deep darkness? As mere humans, we all must spend parts of our lives in doubt, loneliness, or suffering. Given this reality, how can we call ourselves a people with hope to bring? In times of darkness, symbolized by these late December days, what allows us to be bearers of hope?

To be true Advent people we must recognize this reality: it is not the facts of our human existence that give us reason to hope. The facts of our human weakness—our blindness, the power of evil, darkness—threaten to overwhelm us. How then can we be bearers of hope? How, but through a gift, the very gift that we long to receive in these last Advent days? A gift offered by God into our human lives, the gift of hope?

We are, indeed, a people with hope to bring. This hope is not self-generated or dependent on the often-dark facts of our lives. We are a people with hope to bring because we are recipients of a divine gift—the gift of Christmas—which invites us to believe that the darkness in the world is not the final fact. God has stirred our hearts with the gift of hope! This hope awakens us to the possibility that tomorrow light will shine in our darkness. May we be ever more open to this Christmas gift, the light of a mighty God and Prince of Peace. May we be vessels of God’s light and messengers of Good News—a people with hope to bring!

Father Lou DelFra, C.S.C., ’92, ‘03M.Div.

This reflection comes from “The Gift of Hope,” a booklet that presents Advent and Christmas reflections in the Holy Cross tradition; used with permission from Ave Maria Press.