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[rev-esparza-cp]

[rev-esparza-cp]

[rev-esparza-cp]

First Sunday of Advent

(The Gospel of Saint Mark 13:33 to 37)

Advent: School of Hope

Be watchful, Jesus warns his disciples when prophesying the destruction of the temple.

Be watchful, when even your sense of identity is lost, when confusion reigns, this is what the destruction of the temple meant for the Hebrews.

Be watchful, when you are hated by those closest to your heart, stay alert, Jesus advises his friends.

Be watchful, Jesus warns, when the cosmos, when the sun and stars tremble, when nature becomes violent.

But what did Jesus mean with these words?

Be watchful…

on the lips of the Lord is asking us to hope in the midst of calamity.

Be watchful on the lips of our God means having a stubborn conviction in God's faithfulness.

To be watchful on the lips of our Savior is a call to be slaves of hope in the midst of the darkness of the world.

This hope is not superficial positive psychology, or a naive optimism that hides and buries the raw, the violent, the cruel and even the absurd, and the emptiness of existence.

This hope does not lead us to a cowardly, conscious escapism from the darkness that can exists in life.

The hope I speak of is not nice cossie feelings that the world proposes as one faces the nebulous and dark things in life.

The hope I speak of is different... that is why we will have to call it Christian hope.

This Christian hope makes us first descend and then ascend.

This Christian hope first thrust our whole beings into the darkness... It roots us in the raw, the violent, the unjust, the cruel, the absurd and the emptiness of our existence in order to allow these realities to speak to our hearts.

This is the first step in learning to be slaves to hope… to be watchful.

To allow the darkness of existence to speak is to dwell on the Golgotha hill. It is to dwell at the foot of the Cross. This task is only for the little ones. Dwelling on the Golgotha will not be for the great and the strong.

First we have to be scandalized by the Cross, by the darkness of existence, to the point of almost deserting, until we almost run away.

Everyone here has experienced this when tragedy hits our lives. We know the pain, the sorrow, the shame of dwelling on the Golgotha Hill at the foot of the Cross, facing suffering.

We know that allowing for suffering to speak to the depths of our being is scandalizing. It can shake the core of our being.

It is at this moment, when suffering speaks that some become nihilists, pessimists, prophets of tragedy and even cynics.

As Mexicans we know this very well. Faced with the tragedy of the state, our country and society, there is a large sector of society that has already thrown in the towel. They are tired of hearing the pain in our society. They could not bear it. And, they became prophets of death, cynics and they have taken refuge in indifference.

Mexicand who have thrown in the towel have their own litanies, their own mantras that reflect their feelings and their life.

Mexicans who are cynical about injustice and tragedy only know how to say:

This is how it has always been and nothing is going to change.

When we allow suffering to speak deep in our hearts and we do NOT trust in our strength but in God's…

When we allow suffering to speak deep in our hearts and we do NOT trust in our own wisdom but in the wisdom of God.

When we allow suffering to speak in the depths of our heart and we do not seek our own will but the holy will of God... it is here that we ascend and Christian hope springs forth.

It is in this ascension that Christian hope begins to flourish after facing what darkness has to say.

The ascension of Golgotha, of allowing suffering to speak, will be done through the abandonment of our life in God. It will be through continuous discernment of God's will with the community and through prayer.

The ascension in Christian hope, on this earth, is from Golgotha and takes us into the empty tomb of Jesus.

The same tomb where the evangelist Mark invites us to enter with the little ones. St. Mark's testimony of the resurrection is accompanied by shock and awe, not haughty conviction. The response to the resurrection for the evangelist Mark was faint and soft that it almost evaporated because of the fear they felt at the empty tomb.

In other words, Christian hope is not a mature and imposing oaktree that blossoms from triumphalism and certainty. Christian hope, taking the words of Charles Péguy, philosopher, poet and mystic of the 20th century, is a little girl of nothing, but that little girl of nothing, says Charles Peguy, will cross the world.

This little girl, called Christian hope, is fragile but her strength lies in her naivety and daring courage. That is why, in her boldness, she is not stunned by despair because he already knew it when she allowed suffering and darkness to speak

In the face of social confusion, this little girl called Christian Hope can illuminate the depths of our being in order to cling to who we are and to whom we belong.

In the face of family division or social antagonism, Christian hope allows us to keep the doors open to forgiveness and reconciliation even if it is from afar and even if it costs us our comfort and pride.

Faced with the cataclysmic realities that we face such as the climate crisis, the economic crisis and the violence in the country, this little girl called Christian Hope urges us to continue doing our part. I have to do my part and do it well. Indifference or defitism is not an option for Christians.

Let us enter this season of Advent, which is the school of hope, with hearts open so that the Living Word of God can allow us to descend and ascend, from the Golgotha Hill to the empty tomb, and thus allow the little girl of nothing, called Christian hope, to flourish in our lives and the life of the community. This way we will remain watchful as our Lord commanded.

May the Passion of Christ be always in our hearts.

[rev-esparza-cp]

BETWEEN LOVE & OTRAS CHINGADERAS

… is a collection of prose, poems and short stories. The product of the past five years—from the green mountains of Chiapas, Mexico

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