Merry Christmas everybody.
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
I was thinking about this a lot. A couple years ago, I did the wedding of a couple
and graduates from the universities up here at Christmastime
It was basically, was a little before Christmas,
and so it got me thinking a lot about like, What is it that couples need the most on their wedding day?
Like Do they need love? Is it they need trust? Is it- What do they need, so they need joy in that day?
What is it they need on their wedding day?
Maybe more than anything, I think what they need more than almost anything
is hope.
If you think about this, the last day you need to promise someone that you're gonna love them is the wedding day.
*inaudible* Because of course you're gonna love them that day.
The last day you're gonna promise to be faithful to them is that day
because of course you're gonna be faithful to them that day
but when it comes down to it, they make a promise, why?
They make a promise because they're saying, "Okay, I love you today. I want to be faithful today to you today,
but I know that the day is coming when I won't feel like loving you.
When that day comes, I promise I will."
They're saying that, "I know, I love you today I'm going to be faithful to you today.
but I know that the day is coming when I won't feel like being faithful,
but when that day comes, I promise you, I will."
The virtue of hope, I would say, is most necessary on a couple's wedding day then maybe any other time or any other virtue.
Hope is not simply optimism.
I think sometimes we think that hope is just kind of looking forward t- or looking forward to a better future
or thinking that, "Nah, it's gonna get better." This kind of idea that as time rolls on, it only gets better.
That's not true. We know, if you live for a little while, you realize that is not true at all.
Things don't just get better.
Actually, sometimes things get a lot a lot worse.
So being hopeful is not being optimistic that things are gonna turn around
or things are gonna are gonna turn our way or things are gonna get better.
Hope is something different.
In fact, I would say this: Hope is personal.
Hope is not just kind of an idea or a feeling, it's personal. Hope is trust extended into the future.
So when you have hope, what that means you have trust right now.
So it's not just kind of, "I, I really kind of wish that it would get better. I really wish things will turn around.
I am optimistic."
It's, "No, no. I trust in a person and I trust, I have that trust is extended into the future."
So, on a person's wedding day, right? Bride looks at a groom, groom looks at his bride and he says,
"Now, I have hope,"
meaning, "I trust in your promise. I trust in you and extending that trust into the future.
I trust who you are right now and I trust your promise into the future.
So, when Christmas is a season of hope, what we're not saying is a season of just great happiness
[or] it's a season that's free from pain, [or] it's a season where everything is worked out for you.
What we're saying is this is a season where we're called to have trust in a person
and we're called to allow that trust to be extended into the future.
So what are Christ's promises?
Well, we're saying that Jesus in Christmas, "You are Emmanuel," right? "You are God with us."
This is the Incarnation, the, the Word made flesh that that St. John, in the, in the beginning of the gospel,
he says that, that, We saw the fa- the glory of a Father's only Son and he came and he dwelt with us.
He tabernacled with us, he lived with us.
God is here and that's- those are the lines of Christmas, those are the lines leading up to Christmas,
those- the, the message that God is here, even in darkness and even in pain
and even when things don't go well for us, even in broken hearts and broken lives,
God is here and I trust in that God.
So what we're saying when we hope it's like,
"God, I trust that you're here.
I trust in you and I trust that you will be there when I get there.
I trust that you will be here in my life even in the future."
Hope, truly, is not just a feeling and it's not just this kind of like thing we conjure up.
It's a relationship.
That's why it's so hard for people who don't have a relationship with God to have hope.
Not because they don't believe that there's a God out there who loves them, just, not just that,
but because they don't have a relationship with this God who's out there who loves them.
But if you're a Christian, that means you're celebrating on Christmas, the truth, the reality, the,
the belief that, that God himself is here with us and that you can have a relationship with him,
that you trust him, you trust that he's been there, that he is here and he will be there.
That's hope.
So whether you're in midst of pain this Christmas season
or in the midst of loneliness and darkness this Christmas season,
all of us can have hope,
which is trust in Jesus,
that he's here
and trust in Jesus that he will always be here.
God is with you today
and he will be with you tomorrow
and he will be with you until the end of time.
Live this Christmas with hope.
For all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike.
God bless
and Merry Christmas.
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