Dear Friends,
Today marks the beginning of the 11th year I have been writing this blog…through holidays and holidays, through the pandemic and winter storms, through changes in my own thinking and yours. Often, when the times were ordinary and I wondered what topic I might write about, I listened hard to the conversations of people, the local, national and international news, and the Holy Spirit. When I was most dependent on these other sources, I found the words flowed most freely.
I have hoped that at least a few people reading these thoughts found resonance in them. And I plan to go on as long as my mind is fertile, and I get some feedback that these thoughts are worthwhile. Thank you for being among my occasional or regular readers.
Given this new decade of writing and the unsettled character of the times, let’s begin this new decade by mulling over some thoughts on hope, that least easily grasped quality needed to live a faithful life.
In the most casual, colloquial terms, hope means that there is more to life than meets the eye. Hope is just beyond the horizon. We hope for things we cannot see. Helen Keller was/is a living testament to hope. The Holy Spirit sent her Annie and the impossible blossomed. Hope in the form of Annie, gave Helen Keller a remarkable life.
Embodied hope. We have undoubtedly experienced it but not always recognized it. Hope tends to be masked over by surprise or someone else’s genius in achieving the next step. But hope is unique. It means to live in readiness for the goodness that is to come. A number of years ago, I came across the title of a conference about hope. It was entitled, “Being Respectfully Persistent for Love of God.” Persistence. Our part matters. As we hope for change in society, our Church, our neighborhood, our attitudes, we must do the work. The profound truth about Baptism is that it launches us into tasks that are bigger than our lifetime. Hope says: we may not see the result, but we are part of the movement.
When the women in Jesus’ public ministry encountered Jesus, hope stirred in them. Sometimes that hope was initially dashed. Jesus seemed to reject the plea of the Syrophoenician woman who came to Jesus expecting a cure for her daughter. But she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Cleverly, she worked around Jesus’ cultural limitations. He did what her daughter needed. Hope turned into a new reality for all concerned.
A decade of hope lies before us. Shall we welcome it as a gift of our generous God?
~ Sister Joan Sobala
HOPE is such a timely topic. So often we feel weighed down by the darkness of our times and wonder what it will take to soften the hearts of our people. Your word of "persistence" reminds me that we cannot give up. Giving up and giving in will only add to the sad state of our world. So we march forward, grasping onto every morsel of hope that crosses our path.
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