Inaugurate the “new time”

Together with the evangelist Luke we begin this time of Advent, of grace and hope. The language of this text (Lk 21:25-28.34-36), surprising and disturbing, assures us that God’s salvation makes its way through the ups and downs of history. This certainty implies an enormous commitment for believers.

Jesus’ discourse is apocalyptic and adapted to the culture of his time. In us too there is anguish, fear and dread, caused by various agents, external and internal, but salvation still comes!

Away from instilling fear, Luke presents this event as good news. Jesus is the Savior, and his arrival will mean the definitive liberation, the fullness of the reign of God (Lk 21:31). The attitude of vigilance to which Advent invites us is to be alert to discover the “Christ who comes” in current situations, to recognize Him and together with Him to face them as a necessary process of a total liberation that passes through the cross.

What can we do? “To be awaken and pray”, because this Spirit of freedom and liberation is discovered with a living Hope, meeting point between the promises of faith and the precarious signs that today surround those promises. Hope is memory that tends to be forgotten; it is nourished by prayer, adheres us to the promises of faith and inspires us, every day, in the search for its footprints in the signs of time.