By Sister Angelina Mitre, RSM
Advent is a season that awakens within us the longing for a new and fuller life. It is often said that “hope is the last thing to be lost,” because it is precisely that desire for a better future that moves us to take risks, to let go of our comfort zone, and to walk toward the unknown. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “the virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man” (no. 1818). This yearning for fullness and a better life also inspires the activities, decisions and dreams of our peoples.
In this sense, human mobility becomes a visible sign of that longing. Thousands of people leave behind their land, their families and their histories, embracing a journey full of uncertainty in the hope of finding, elsewhere, a more dignified life. Yet many times that “land flowing with milk and honey” turns out to be only a mirage.
In the stories of the birth of Jesus, we encounter characters who become models and companions for all the pilgrims of hope: the shepherds. Today, those shepherds have many faces. They are the peoples who struggle to preserve their rights after centuries of oppression; indigenous communities defending their lands from exploitation; migrants working in our fields, hotels and city streets, sustaining economies that often render them invisible. They are women and men who fear revealing their nationality for fear of deportation; people forced to flee their homelands due to violence or poverty.
Yet it is precisely amid theis darkness that the light of hope shines forth. Just as the shepherds saw a great light on the night they encountered the Child Jesus, we too are called to recognize and contemplate the light that God ignites in simple hearts. That light of a better world encourages us to continue believing in a more just one. The coming of the Child Jesus transformed those shepherds; may the divinity that shines in the humble of heart transform us as well.
“They went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger … and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them…” (Lk 2:16–18). They returned transformed because hope does not disappoint: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5).
Charles Péguy, a French poet, wrote that hope is a “little girl,” small and fragile, yet the one who trusts the most. Only those who recover the gaze of a child can be amazed at the works of love that still flourish today in the midst of suffering. This hope moves us to extend our hand, to open paths for young people seeking their way, to protect the capacity for wonder in children, to accompany the elderly so they keep their purpose alive, and to welcome the migrant with a heart that creates belonging.
Pope Francis describes hope as a virtue that urges us to keep walking even when the future appears dark, sustained by faith in God and by love. He says that hope is a “contagion” passed from heart to heart, grounded in the resurrection of Christ and in the certainty that God can transform evil into good.
In this Advent, a time of active waiting and faith that walks, we are invited to be pilgrims of hope, as the Jubilee Year proposes. To allow ourselves to be surprised by the light God kindles today. To keep watch—like the shepherds—even in the night, trusting that the One who has promised us fullness of life is faithful (Heb 10:23).
May this holy season renew within us a way of seeing capable of recognizing the presence of God in simple hearts, in those who dream, in those who migrate, and in those who struggle. And may we, like the shepherds, find the Child and return transformed, carrying into the world the humble and steadfast certainty that the hope of the Gospel does not disappoint.