At the Iona Community we’re exploring how hope rooted in faith can be found, ‘lived in community.’ During advent, what does it mean to find hope in expecting; hope in wholeness; hope in not knowing and in waiting? Three stories of women throw light on this question:
Hope in the preparing and in the expecting
Mary the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:39)
I wonder what Mary, the mother of Jesus thought as she prepared for the birth of her first child. A young woman herself, the expectations of becoming a mother may have overwhelmed her – yet surely she was surrounded by wise, older women like her cousin Elizabeth who could offer her reassurances that being expectant, being prepared, was more than a practical exercise.
“Hope is in the planning and preparing”, they assured –
“through the pain, see the potential in the unborn child.”
As we wait, expectant, for this child to be born,
it is there that preparations turn plans into form.
Hope in the wholeness and in the healing
The bleeding woman (Mark 5: 21 – 34)
The unnamed woman who touches Jesus’ hem and is healed is commended for her faith. The anxious, grieving father is rewarded by his faith. Where a cure may allude us there is a deeper healing, a wholeness that is present in the faith.
“Hope is in the wholeness, and the healing”, they cried –
yet the agony and sorrow mean my heart remains split wide
by the bleeding and the brokenness, the sorrow and the pain.
Will faith-filled healing turn sorrow into gain?
Hope in the not knowing and in the waiting
Mary at the grave (John 20:1)
The Hebrew translation of hope is something like ‘to wait expectantly’ – to wait in a state of assurance that, despite the pain, and the not knowing in the world, still the divine mystery which is part of the not knowing may paradoxically give us the reassurances that we seek. I wonder if this is how the women who discovered the empty tomb felt?
“Hope is in the waiting and the patience”, they said –
yet the door remained wide open to uncertainty, to dread.
In the patience of the waiting, and the rolling of the stone;
is it there that not knowing might turn waiting into known?
Share your thoughts
Reflect on these three stories of waiting with expectation, share any thoughts that surface for you in these deep-into-advent days.