The four weeks of Advent invite Christians into a season rich with promise and alive with hope a spiritual rhythm that can sustain believers even in the most difficult moments, writes Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ in Melbourne Catholic.
Human life, he notes, naturally follows patterns of anticipation and celebration. Children count down the days until school ends and holidays begin, while parents sometimes find themselves waiting with equal anticipation for the school term to resume. Much-loved traditions like the feverish excitement before a football grand final mirror this same cycle, building from restlessness to joyful release.
These everyday experiences reflect the deeper rhythms of nature: sowing followed by reaping, winter yielding to spring, and harvest completing the agricultural cycle. The Church’s liturgical calendar mirrors this pattern as well. Advent, a time of waiting and preparation, leads into the celebration of Christmas, which itself carries a week of festivity.
Fr Hamilton explains that Advent offers a message of hope strong enough to accompany people through dark or challenging times. The Mass readings of the season repeatedly draw from the Book of Isaiah, a text overflowing with vibrant images of renewal: peace flowing like water, flourishing fields, fruitful harvests, and a God who walks closely with the people.
Yet Isaiah’s hopeful vision arose during a time of immense suffering. The Jewish people had endured war, defeat, and exile an era marked by darkness, displacement, and fear. Their outward world was bleak, but Isaiah’s words painted a future filled with colour, abundance, and peace.
Today’s global conflicts echo that ancient pain. The struggles of people uprooted by violence in Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, and other regions bring Isaiah’s context painfully into the present.
Advent, Fr Hamilton suggests, asks us to stand in solidarity with people living in exile today refugees, displaced families, and those relying on the generosity of strangers simply to survive. Their experiences mirror the long wait of the Israelites, who clung to the promise of return and restoration.
Isaiah refused to call his people’s suffering “normal.” Instead, he reminded them that they were waiting for a new beginning one filled with dignity, peace, and justice. Advent extends this same invitation to believers: to wait with hope, to see beyond hardship, and to believe in the possibility of renewal.
As the world enters this season of anticipation, the message of Advent remains clear even in times of darkness, the promise of light endures.