I am always horrified by the atrocities committed by the Nazis. In July, 1944, Father Alfred Delp was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo. While he was held in Tegel prison awaiting what would be a mock trial, he managed to smuggle out letters and spiritual meditations despite being handcuffed the entire time. In December he wrote an Advent devotion which included the following:

“The world is more than its burden, and life is more than the sum of its gray days. The golden threads of the genuine reality are already shining through everywhere. Let us know thus, and let us, ourselves, be conforming messengers. Hope grows through the one who is himself a person of the hope and the promise.”

Father Delp was hanged on February 2, 1945.

It amazes me that Father Delp could write such a positive, hopeful message is the midst of the horror he was undergoing. It shames me to think of the despair I have fallen into when facing minor inconveniences like a flat tire.

Father Delp talked about the need to be hopeful in order for hopefulness to grow.  How does one become a person of hope? By making trust in the Lord Jesus more important than anything else, really believing the promises of Christ. And then sharing the hopefulness that comes from that trust with others. If people do nothing but spread gloom and doom, it’s no wonder things look hopeless.

Christ came as the light of the world to cast out darkness. Find your hope in him.

Maranatha!

Read 1 Thessalonians 1:3 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

*Advent of the Heart, p. 29