15 December. This 'Wave of Hope' reflection for Advent comes from Bishop Jim Curry, Lead Bishop for the Holy Land for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.
This Wave of Hope reflection for Advent comes from Bishop Jim Curry, Lead Bishop for the Holy Land for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Jesus was born into a mess, says Bishop Jim, but we should never lose hope that, in Him, the world can be different.
“Jesus comes in order to unite heaven and earth. Not for us to wait for heaven on earth, but to unite heaven and earth. A new creation has already begun, and the possibility of that new creation can never be exhausted. That’s the hope that sustains us.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
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Hello, I’m Bishop Jim Curry, an Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Westminster, and I have a special responsibility as the lead bishop for the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales for issues in the Holy Land.
At a recent event for children, I said to them, “Jesus could have been born in a palace. He could have stayed in heaven. He could have been born anywhere. But he was born in a mess. He was born into our mess, the mess we make of our lives, the mess we make of our world, the mess we make in our families.”
But he’s born into that mess so that there is always the hope that things can be different and that we can be part of that difference. If we ever lose sight of the hope that the world can be different, and needs to be different, because that’s the whole point of the Incarnation, the redemption, the death and Resurrection of Jesus, that he comes in order to unite heaven and earth. Not for us to wait for heaven on earth, but to unite heaven and earth. A new creation has already begun, and the possibility of that new creation can never be exhausted.
And that’s the hope that sustains us. In our country, there’s a bit of a nostalgia for a Christmas that perhaps we never experienced, a simpler, unadorned, less commercial Christmas. Well, that’s the mess we live in, and we need to be able to find that hope and that possibility of a different world in our Christmas as it is, not necessarily as we wish it to be.
Sister Maria Cecialia Sierra is a Comboni Missionary Sister working among Bedouin communities in the West Bank.
Abbot Hugh Allan is the Director of Mission for the Bishops' Conference.
