Last Sunday we heard of terror at the end of days such that: "People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world." (Lk 21: 26) Today's readings speak of hope. Baruch speaks of an end to exile: "Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look toward the east, and see your children gathered from west and east, at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them." (Bar 5: 5) The gospel also speaks of hope since the voice of prophecy, so long silent, is again heard in the land. John the Baptizer emerges from the wilderness and exhorts the people, suffering under economic and political oppression: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." (Lk 3: 4) Pope Francis has called all missionary disciples to be "pilgrims of hope" in the Jubilee 2025. Let us take his cue and prepare ourselves this Advent to be precisely pilgrims of hope in a world grown stale and tired through the futility of secularism, consumerism and materialism. St Paul assures us that we look for consolation not from the things of this world but in the Kingdom of Heaven: "So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not on what can be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal." (2 Cor 4: 16-18)
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