With final exams underway, I would bet that all week you’ve been bombarded with “hope messages.” “Hope you do well on your exams,” or “Hope you have enough time to get ready,” or “Hope your professor cuts you some slack on the final.”

What is hope and why do we hope? What makes us hope – even hope against hope?

You certainly could find some answers in Pope Benedict XVI’s recent encyclical on hope (haven’t read it yet but hope to over the holidays). And you can find some insight on hope in Scripture, particularly in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 8, where he wrote, “In hope we were saved. But hope is not hope if its object is seen…And hoping for what we cannot see means awaiting it with patient endurance.” You can learn about hope in poetry and throughout the arts, and in the biographies of great men and women who lived the virtue.

But if you really want to understand what hope is, you may want to be in Mexico on this day. I spent a December 12th in Mexico once and will never forget it.

For while you were up before dawn studying, millions of Mexicans were up, with lit candles in hand, and were assembling to sing songs to “wake up” La Guadalupana – a name given to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, whom the devout believe visited them in 1531 in a little area called Guadalupe, near Mexico City. Through the centuries this site has become the most frequented Marian shrine in the world. I have been there on a number of occasions – most recently with my family – and each visit is better than the one before.

This morning in Mexico City multitudes gathered before the miraculous cloak about which tradition, buttressed by historical analysis, tells the story of an imprint of an image of Mary that mysteriously appeared. Google “Guadalupe” and you can read for yourself what happened. Nearly five centuries later, pilgrims from near and far come to gaze at this image (if you have ever been in my office you have seen a replica of this image). This simple cloak is elevated high above the altar of a Basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe and throughout the year, but especially today – the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe – people from all over Mexico, the Americas, and the world come to honor La Guadalupana.

This image, imprinted on the front of a simple cloak worn by a peasant, has mysteriously survived 475 years of weather and wars, thieves and skeptics. There is no way to explain how the poor cactus fibers, and the cheap dyes available at that time, could leave a lasting, detailed image like the one displayed on the tilma of Juan Diego and revered throughout the Catholic world today.

Interestingly enough, this image of Mary shows her pregnant – she has a sash around her waist that symbolized in the culture of the 16th century that the bearer was an expectant mother. It is fitting that this feast falls during the season of Advent – a time of expectation and hope – that is centered around an expectant mother.

I simply will say that in this season of hope - please know that my wife, Mary, and I join with you as you await good grades, the warmth of family love, and the coming of Our Savior, Jesus Christ. Good luck with your final exams and have a Merry Christmas. See you next year, I hope!