MADISON Waiting during Advent for the birth of Jesus at Christmas gives way to an even greater “waiting in joyful hope” within Catholics through faith that opens the door to “authentic hope” in God’s saving work through us that transforms the world and in accepting his gift of redemption in the next life — even in the midst of joys and struggles.
That was what Benedictine Abbot Elias Lorenzo, president of the American Cassinese Congregation, told priests of the Diocese on Dec. 4 at an Advent Day of Recollection for Priests at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard here. He gave two reflections: one on the origins of hope as described in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms and Isaiah, and another about how the Emmaus story of the New Testament illuminates that hope through Jesus — insights valuable to priests, as well as Catholics as a whole. The priests also received opportunities to engage in private prayer and fellowship with fellow priests and to receive the Sacrament of Penance from Abbot Lorenzo, who lives at St. Mary’s Abbey, Morristown. The event was sponsored by the diocesan Priestly Life Committee, led by Father Richard Bay, the committee’s chairman, who also serves as pastor of St. Simon the Apostle Parish in Green Pond and diocesan minister to senior priests.
“The Lord is coming — always coming. When we have ears to hear and eyes to see, we will recognize him on the way and at any every moment of our lives. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the presence of the Lord, walking with us along the way. Yes, the Lord comes to us in word and in sacrament and always in one another. This is our hope!” Abbot Lorenzo said in his second talk. “Genuine hope calls us to look deeply into the desires of our hearts. Do we see redemptive and salvific [saving] implications in them? Are they acts of divine intervention, where we know that, even in our own sinfulness, God is at work to bring forth something more than we can even hope for? How important it is for us to know and believe that our hopes are something more than we can even ask or imagine,” he said.
In his second presentation, Abbot Lorenzo spoke about hope through the Emmaus story by St. Luke, often presented in the Easter season and represented through the lens of the Advent season of hope. It recounts about two disciples, who are distraught that the crucifixion of Jesus that just took place did not result in the redemption of Israel. They walk toward the village of Emmaus to run away from Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified. On the road, they meet a stranger — Jesus — whom they do not recognize or understand the meaning of his words in conversation — their failure to see through the eyes of faith. At the end of the journey, the stranger stays with the disciples and, at their table, takes bread, blesses it and gives it to them — causing them to recognize him. Then, he vanished from their sight, Luke records.
“The awakening of their faith gives birth to hope, a hope that is founded on the great Paschal Mystery of the Messiah. The doors of their hearts begin to open to the salvific power that has been at work in the mysterious and unthinkable passion and death of their Messiah; hope is born in transforming grace of Christ’s Resurrection,” Abbot Lorenzo said. “In this context of the liturgy, hope is a virtue that flows from the saving death and Resurrection of Christ and looks forward to his second coming. We taste that hope, when we come to the altar to be fed with the very life of the risen Christ. He says that hope is about God’s redemptive action in Christ, and thus in you and me,” he said.
Abbot Lorenzo continued: “Hope draws its deepest meaning from faith; it is faith that gives rise to hope — what gives meaning to our present life points toward God's redemptive action in our earthly existence, and importantly, beyond this earthly existence. An understanding of ‘hope’ depends on what we see as salvific and redemptive in our lives — the life of our parish communities, the movement of our world, the journey of society through time and history.”
In his first presentation, Abbot Lorenzo went back to the Old Testament, “where the distinguishing character of the Hebrew word for ‘hope’ is tied to a need for redemption, salvation, deliverance, rescue, release, recovery or liberation.” Hope requires our trust in God that is rooted in him and his power, his will and his answers to our prayers. Thus, “we submit to God’s action in our lives,” Abbot Lorenzo said.
Psalm 130, known as the De Profundis, “Out of the Depths,” acknowledges our sinfulness before God and a need for his help, Abbot Lorenzo said. The psalm connects hope with “salvation and redemption in the form of divine mercy and forgiveness.” Palmists often pray for God’s deliverance from some personal malady or situation and conclude by seeing the larger picture in praying for the whole of Israel — demonstrating that “when we approach God from the bottom of our painful experience, where all hope seems to be lost, we find meaning and significance most radically,” he said.
The Old Testament story of salvation is “filled with hope because however serious the infidelity of God’s people, whenever they would turn back, God was always there to renew the covenant relationship — thanks to the people’s “capacity to see and experience God's love, mercy, compassion, fidelity and repeated ‘welcome back,’ ” Abbot Lorenzo said.
“We might even ask, is there a parallel to our present crisis in the Church?” Abbot Lorenzo asked. “Is this a reason for an existential hope for all of us in the Church that can unify a broken institution, bring healing to many who suffer, restore trust where suspicion now stands strong, rebuild confidence in demoralized clergy and religious and set us on a path of renewal? The Scriptures of the Old Testament would suggest that we should look in this direction to move forward — always forward, everywhere forward,” he said.