Advent has often been called “the season of hope.” A question must be asked:
“Are you, am I, hoping for the right things, or the wrong things?” Hope to live
a long and healthy life, hope to prosper in one’s work and to do well, hope for
peace in one’s family or country—all of these are “natural hopes,” and good
things. Ultimate or divine hope is in God: the hope of sharing God’s divine
life forever, beyond death. But there are also false hopes, and the first
reading, from Isaiah, presents such a false hope that has had an enormous
influence on history: “They will beat their swords into pruning hooks.. and
never will they train for war again.” The history of utopian dreaming, of
metastatic faith, has begun. Its offspring can be seen in Enlightenment belief
in the spread of progress and democracy; in Marxism’s belief in a global world
society where “all are free and equal;” and in the American naive belief in the
“promised land.” In Advent, one should sit still and seek to give up false
hopes. We in our present society and world are bombarded with false hopes, as
from the mass media, entertainment, sometimes even in the churches. “Time to
wake from sleep,” as St. Paul admonishes us.
