“My hope does not deceive me!” (Romans 5:5) God will certainly not disappoint me… The future is promising. In my heart, I feel that everything will be fine. Good things are waiting for me. But when I look around… what do I see?
Wars, fights, conflicts, disease, disagreements, climate change, rampant abuse of natural and human resources…. This darkness is intense
I look and see nothing but darkness. In me I feel the tension… between confidence and heartbreak… peace in my heart and in my mind and anxiety… joy and fear… life and death. Is this hope within me…futile? Does it make sense?
In the dead of night, I started to hear something… It was like sweet music. A song full of Christmas joy… peace and the wonder of childhood. My thoughts led me to the joy I felt in my childhood when I was fascinated by the birth of baby Jesus. A scene that re-instilled in me peace and calmness. How true it is what I once heard, that “He who has hope lives differently, because he has the gift of a new life!” (Spe Salvi 2) My hope is a gift given to me by God. My hope is Jesus himself.
Jesus is the gift given to humanity… he is our anchor, which makes our lives meaningful and worth living.
I fix my gaze on you, Baby Jesus, and I remember that you are the sign and the reason for my hope. In you, I find comfort, mercy and love. You are the true meaning of my life. Fill me with patience so that I can stop and look at you, to allow myself to be filled with awe! Grant me the patience, so that as I admire you as a baby in the manger, I can see in you peace, love, unity, and mercy. Fill me with your peace! Fill me with enthusiasm for life! Make of me, Baby Jesus, a sign of hope for all those I come into contact with. Let me be ‘a drop of life’ so that others can see in me the beauty of being alive and experience the love that you have instilled in my heart! Increase in me the ability of attending to the needs of others so that I will respond quickly to their demands. Make of me the balm that heals the wounds that prevent my neighbour from encountering you!
Baby Jesus, you are my only hope. You are essentially good. It is your pleasure, that we, your children, trust in you and turn to you in all our needs. Lord Jesus, who never fails those who trust in you, fill my heart with your peace… because you are my only hope.
In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart! I have overcome the world.
John 16:33
Be renewed in hope!
God’s word helps us find reasons for that hope.
Pope Francis
One who has hope in God relates to God with full confidence,
like a child trusts a good parent.
St George Preca
