Let us prepare for the story of true hope

The word “hope” is rarely used in the four Gospels. Depending upon the translation of the Bible one may use, the word appears only a few times or merely once. The other books of the New Testament use the word “hope,” but its absence from the Gospels is noteworthy There are scripture scholars who observe that the absence of the word “hope” reflects the fact that there is truly no hope until the cross. While the writers of the Gospels write of faith and charity, their Gospel story moves toward the salvation won for us by the Lord at Calvary and showed to us in His Resurrection. This is the moment when the hope of our faith is finally revealed to us.
These are the deepest questions of the human heart. No matter what our background, who we are, where we are from, what we believe or don’t believe, people at some point in their lives ask questions to themselves such questions as “Why do I exist?” “What is the purpose of my life?” “What will give my life meaning?” “What happens to me when I die?” 
The only way to really answer these questions is with God. Without God, life fundamentally has no meaning and no purpose. Without God, life is absurd. We have to conclude that we are merely a collection of very lucky chemicals that had the good fortune of gathering together and somehow becoming able to self-reflect and love, but then at some point our luck will run out and the chemicals fall apart, and we will cease to exist. Some hold to this pointless view of life as embodied in the phrase: “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die.”
How hopeless.
We know that we are created for a reason. We are invited to enter into a relationship with God which begins now and which endures into all of eternity. Indeed, we are created from the dust of the stars (“Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return”) but we are more than mere dust. We are created in the image and likeness of God. God who is eternal has created us to be eternal. Fashioned from dust, we are also imbued with the divine. We are given a free will. We can choose this relationship with God for all eternity or we can reject this relationship for all eternity. What we cannot do is to reject who we are. We are eternal. Whether we are with God or without God, we are eternal.
We reject our relationship with God every time we sin but the “hope” of the Good News is that Jesus has won for us the way back to God. In the midst of the hopelessness of this world, the Good News reminds us that no one is beyond the love and mercy of God who came to offer us salvation. There are so many people who think God does not care about them, or that God is distant from them, or that they are too far from God to ever return to God. Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners to raise us from our sins. God who chose to be born among us in a manger certainly wishes us to be with Him.
We now begin Advent, the time to prepare for the celebration that our Savior has been born for us. The babe laid in the wood of the manger is the One who would lay down His life on the wood of the cross. 
In the midst of all the festivities of this season, let us prepare for the celebration of Christmas by turning back to the One who has come to join us to Himself for all eternity. Let us prepare in our hearts for the story of Bethlehem for this is the story of true hope.