November 25, 2016 // Uncategorized

The hope Advent brings

Todays Catholic

By Emma Gettinger

In the life of a student, time flies by too quickly. Before you know it, it’s already Thanksgiving and you are left scratching your head, wondering where in the world the past few months have gone. The start of Advent can be a rude awakening that forces you to realize Christmas is right around the corner and that the year is coming to an end.

With this awakening, it is easy to be caught up with trying to find the perfect gifts for family and friends before time runs out. We can become sidetracked and forget to focus on the true purpose of Advent: preparing ourselves to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. However, even if we fail to prepare ourselves as much as we should, we can still have hope. No matter what we have done, hope in the mercy of God never fails us. We always have God’s immense love as a source of hope.

Hope is not a foreign concept. It can be defined as the desire of something together with the expectation of obtaining it. We experience hope every day, whether it is something as simple as hoping that it’s a decent temperature outside or as serious as hoping that you achieve the goal of getting your dream job.

Hope can be found even in the most desperate situations. The Gospel reading for the first Sunday of Advent may seem a little worrisome, since it speaks of one person being taken and the other being left. However, even there, hope can be found. We can hope that, even though we do not know when the Son of Man will come again, that we will be prepared and able to experience God’s mercy.

The season of Advent fosters that hope, and reminds us of our need to be prepared since we do not know the exact time of the second coming of Christ.

Emma Gettinger is a 2015 Marian High School graduate and a Saint Mary’s College student.