The experience we call Christmas is an experience inextricably bound up with hope. Invited to be people of hope, we are also shown God’s own hope in us and in the future of our world. A newborn babe is recognized as the fulfillment of the prophecies of generations of the people who have been waiting for a savior, a messiah, to come among them. In a world dark with oppression and injustice and sadness, hope is born. Weaving together the hopes of Mary, who believed God’s words to her about the child to come, the hopes of Joseph who believed God’s assurances about Mary and the child, and the hopes of their people, this mystery child is born, destined to be recognized as God-with-us. New possibilities open. God’s hoping and human hoping have become one.

Some shepherds, seeing and feeling this hope, rejoice, and heaven echoes their rejoicing. This moment has changed the future of the earth. Seers from a far-off land journey a long way to honor the babe and the inner meaning of this moment in history. The reigning king, with no good intentions, tries to find out where the babe is, but is prevented from getting this information. In the end, the holy family flees to a foreign country to avoid being murdered. Yet hope, represented by the infant Jesus, persists, grows and returns safely home in due time.

Today our world and we, as individuals, are suffering, frightened and perplexed, confronting events that seem totally beyond our control. Especially in times like these, we need to remember that hope has to be worked at when it doesn’t automatically arise. Although it is true that hope is a gift of grace embroidered into the very fabric of our souls, created as they are in the image and likeness of God, there can be a significant difference between knowing that and living it. In each of us there is, however, an elusive presence prompting us to hope even when and where hope does not seem reasonable. When we “lose” hope, we lose contact with that part of our inner selves where not only hope itself, but also the capacity for hoping, is found. This does not mean that we are no longer able to hope, but that we are experiencing a temporary disconnection with this part of ourselves, having become too focused in the direction of outer misfortune.

Now, more than ever, it is important to know what gives us hope and what we hope for, both for ourselves and for our world. Our work is to stay focused on the hope energy and to contribute to that energy rather than to the energy of confusion and despair. When hope doesn’t spontaneously happen or seems absent, it needs to be coaxed out of hiding. In the birth of Jesus, we have been given an invitation to embrace hope, to trust it, and to live aware of its energy for good. Christmas not only invites us to recall that we have reason to hope, but also announces God’s hope in and for our world. Our hopes and God’s hope merge in a birth in a stable. A shared journey begins there and continues to unfold within human history. Across the centuries, we are called to bring hope to birth in our own time. We are invited to see with shepherd’s eyes, to find God’s hope in ourselves, in each other and in our world. We ask for shepherd’s hearts that can feel the presence of hope in the most unexpected places and rejoice.