- A new job.
- Someone to fall in love with us.
- The birth of a child or grandchild.
- Acceptance at a college.
- The first snow.
- Our loved one to return safely home from a war zone.
- Vacation time.
- Time to decorate or go shopping.
- Simply - to get well.
What would we do without hope? Life would be dull, drab, boring. Anticipation brightens our eyes, quickens our hearts. Yet we know that we never receive all that we hope for. Our hopeful smiles so often turn to anguished tears.
For how many generations did the people of Israel wait in hope for a Savior, a Messiah? Hope burned in their hearts even as their tears ran unceasingly because their Temple burned, their people died of starvation or the sword in endless wars, and they were carried off into slavery. They continued to wait in Hope, trusting that Someone would come eventually to free them.
The Messiah Who came did not magically give his people political freedom.
But Jesus the Messiah did tell us all to wait in Hope! He promised that, in his life-giving power, we do not have to be overcome or destroyed by the trials and tragedies of life. Unfortunately, all people will have to bear the consequences of their own actions and the actions of others. But if we trust in Jesus the Christ, his love is always at work in the world bringing good even out of the depths of tragedy. His life-changing love is at work in all of us who believe and have hope. For, if we hope, we give birth to him in our lives.
Jesus the Messiah gives us a choice: either we can choose to live in anger, bitterness, and despair, or we can choose to live in fruitful, life-giving hope. Hope for new directions in our lives. Hope for deep inner healing. Hope for deep, inner peace. Hope to give and receive unconditional love.
Hope gives us a unique vision with which to see this world. Either we see the world as a place of violence, tragedy, and despair - or we see the world as a place drenched with the power of the goodness of God, bursting with quiet, ongoing, new life as surely as the ground in Spring is silently broken open by new leaves reaching for the sun.
How terrible when anticipation turns to near-despair. The marriage ends. The anticipated baby dies. The loved one is killed in war, or we are struck down with chronic illness. But, Jesus did free all of us from devastating fear of illness and death and grieving without hope - because even though we and our loved ones will grow ill and die, we will all live past death - forever. We will see each other again. He has carried our sins and one day death shall be no more. If we have faith in Christ, we grieve, but we do not grieve like one who has no hope.
How terrible when siblings or friends or races or nations or people of different religions or sexual orientations are overcome by anger and refuse to speak to each other. But - Jesus did free all of us from hopeless, dysfunctional alienation from each other. If we embrace his gift of his Holy Spirit, we will be filled with the graces of unconditional love, acceptance, and forgiveness. We will have the power to, one by one, one family at a time, resolve arguments and differences and make peace. In Jesus, we who are far off from each other, and alienated from each other, can be reunited in peace, through the power of sacrifice - his blood shed on the cross.
How terrible when governments around the world are run by greedy dictators who starve their people and keep them at war with one another. But - we can pray unceasingly for peace, with tears in our eyes for the strangers overseas who are truly our family in Christ. We can send financial and medical aid. We can look at our spiritual relatives in our own cities, and see them, truly see them, when our vision is enlightened by the Light of Christ. Christians can see the Light of God in a Jew's or Muslim's eyes. The native-born can see the Light of God in an illegal alien's eyes. The rich can see the Light of God in the eyes of the poor. When we see this Light of God in unexpected eyes, our hearts change. Soften. Become capable of giving birth to Love in another's life.
Jörg Zink says, "We humans contribute to the world’s gloom, like dark shadows on a dark landscape.…But now this man from Nazareth comes to us and invites us to mirror God’s image, and shows us how. He says: you too can become light, as God is light. What is all around you is not hell, but rather a world waiting to be filled with hope and faith. This world is your home as surely as the God who created and wrought it is love. You may not believe it, but you can love this world. It is a place of God. It has a purpose. Its beauty is not a delusion. You can lead a meaningful life in it." (Source: “Doors to the Feast”)
Every day as we wait in hopeful anticipation, let's deepen and widen our hope so that our prayers go up in hope for all people, and our deeds of love reach out to help others who hover on the brink of hopeless despair. We can do - and be - all things in him who strengthens us and fills us with heavenly Hope.