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| Hope, Charity and Faith |
Advent
is the quintessential season of hope. What is hope? Hope is one of
the three virtues mother Church calls 'theological virtues': the
others are faith and love. Through the growth of these three virtues
we grow in knowing God. Faith and love are perhaps easier to
understand; so what do we mean by hope? Hope has been described as
faith directed towards our future. What hope is NOT, is a vague sense
of optimism – hope is very firm and a strengthening virtue, and
often depicted pictorially by an anchor; in other words hope helps us
to weather storms and keep us steady. Hope is faith directed to the
future that is promised through Christ, our future salvation, and the
promise of heaven. Through our life in Him, we know that despite
adversity in the present, if we remain faithful we have a future in
Christ that cannot be taken away. So because Christ's ultimate
victory is assured we have an anchor hold on that future, when in the
present we may be blown around by the storms of life.
So
on this Advent Sunday let us turn our minds towards the future,
towards the End things. Amongst the End things we need to consider is
what we call Judgement – Final Judgement. What do we mean by it?
How does it effect us? Does it give us any hope or indeed joy?
As
Christians we do not believe that we are all inevitably going
to the same place. If it were inevitable, then we would not need a
saviour. But we do need salvation. Our Lord taught that there
is an awful choice between two alternatives: that we are always
choosing between life and death, light and darkness, and good and
evil. We have freedom of will, and we can choose between these two
alternatives throughout our lives.
Judgement
on the evil choice is not to be considered to be an arbitrary act of
God – but as the consequences
of our own choices. Judgement, in the Christian sense, is as much consequences of evil choices we have made freely, as an act of God.
How is this?
All
of our actions can become habitual – they can become habits. We can
develop good habits, and we can develop evil habits. Habits form into
a settled character. If we have evil habits, then we settle in an
evil character; if we have good habits, then we settle in a virtuous
or good character. As time goes by, these become more and more fixed
in us, until we die.
The
thing to remember is that death does not take our character away –
whether good or evil. If a person's character is shaped by lust,
pride, hatred or falsehood then at death these remain. Death sets us
naked before the presence of God's holiness. In God's presence no
habit of sin, no sinful character, no vice is hidden – all is
revealed for what it is. This is judgement. It is the Day of truth,
where nothing is hidden.
In
Scripture the experience of coming into the presence of God is
expressed as fire. Not that God is causing us pain, but that all that
is sinful character within us is incompatible
with the holiness of God. God cannot change. God cannot
accommodate that which is determined
for evil, and bring it into union with Himself!
Freedom
of will is a terrible thing! The consequences are that God respects
our choices. Habits of sin, which is evil, breeds an evil character,
and can lead us to ruin. Consequences! Judgement! So our Lord warned
us over and over again to watch ourselves, to pray for strength, and
to be ready to stand in righteousness before Him. St Paul exhorts the
Thessalonians to:
...confirm
your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless in the sight of God
the Father when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his saints...
So
in Advent we are exhorted to pray, to be faithful, to wait patiently,
to be virtuous, and to repent. Our Lord repeated again and again,
“Repent and believe”. He wasn't saying that for effect. He meant
it. Our core work in this life is to “Repent and believe”. And
the good news is that He has given us the means of doing this. He
forgave sins, and gave His power to forgive to the Apostles and their
successors. We are only to confess with a sincere heart and with
remorse, for us to be forgiven – for us to be made righteous.
So
in this season of Advent let us take to heart the call to be ready
for our Lord's coming, to confirm our hearts in holiness, to respond
to the call to repent. Going to confession in this light can be a
joyful thing. For having made ourselves right with God, our hearts
can have hope and the deep joy that comes from knowing that in Christ
all shall be well.
