Hope

Hope, as a verb, is often defined as to believe, desire, or trust, which is probably why people using this term sometimes dialogue at cross purposes. Whose desire are we talking about? In whom or what do you trust? What exactly do you believe?

Just like with faith, hope is a form of trust. I reckon most people would agree that it is only human to require proof to sustain this other form of trust. I'd like to offer some proof.

This week I’ve read the story of a man in Eastern Ontario who was a promising athlete in high school but was paralyzed from the neck down in a football accident and the heart-wrenching story of Nova Scotia woman with Treacher Collins syndrome – a rare genetic disorder that causes facial deformities.

In both instances I was struck by the journalists’ accounts of these individuals’ apparent serenity after the tumultuous years of soul search and emotional roller coaster caused by their physical circumstances.

This beautiful young woman and this dynamic father are alive and well in spirit.

They never gave up hope. The accounts of their life stories talk of ebbs and flows in their hope, but through pain, patience, and perseverance they have come to see better days.

In his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, Pope Benedict XVI sheds some very insightful light on the Transfiguration (pages 306-307) when he explains:

“…the great events of Jesus’ life are inwardly connected with the Jewish festival calendar. They are, as it were, liturgical events in which the liturgy, with its remembrance and expectation, becomes reality…Our analysis of the connections between the Transfiguration story and the Feast of Tabernacles illustrates once again the fact that all Jewish feasts contain three dimensions. They originate from celebrations of nature religion and thus tell of Creator and creation; they then become remembrances of God’s actions in history; finally, they go on from there to become feasts of hope, which strain forward to meet the Lord who is coming, the Lord in whom God’s saving action in history is fulfilled, thereby reconciling the whole of creation.”

Perhaps skeptics and cynics might read this analysis and dismiss it as the scribbling of an old man blinded by anachronistic thinking. (Anachronism meaning a thing or person that is incongruous, or out of step with, the present time) I write this because just the other day I saw a bumper sticker on a car with the symbols of the world’s three great monotheistic religions with the caption underneath it stating: “Free Your Mind”.

I suppose that if you are convinced that despite the scientifically and statistically near-impossible odds of complex life existing on this planet that we are here by some cosmic fluke, then it would make sense to “free your mind” to believe pretty much anything that suits you. Our omnipotent and loving God gives us the freedom to choose between His desires or our desires. He does not impose Himself on us. He invites us.

Isn’t it interesting that the first of the three temptations Jesus had to face when he began his ministry was to fast in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights at the end of which the devil challenged him to use his omnipotence to convert stones to loaves so he could feed himself. Jesus refused, but as we were reminded on the first Sunday in August, he did multiply the loaves for the masses that gathered to listen to his Word.

I’d like to repeat a quotation I shared in last week's blog on Faith:

“Jesus did not come to make life easy, but to make men great”

I am inspired by the patience and perseverance of the two physically afflicted people I read about this week. They may have come very close to losing hope many times, but they always clung to it.

For what it is worth, when the mother of my children went to her native Argentina for a short-term trip and, once there, informed me that she no longer loved me, desired a divorce and that she and our sons would remain in Argentina, I entered a period of darkness.

I read the Book of Job over, and over, and over again. I read the Psalms. I read the New Testament, the Old Testament, books by C.S. Lewis and others on their spiritual quests to feed my hope of better days. At first there were days where I could not even take things one day at a time, it was one hour at a time.

What got me through this were Faith, Family, and Friends. Thank God for those blessings.

I still have a long row to hoe, but four years after this tragedy, I am still able to fly down to Argentina six times a year to see my 4-1/2 year old and 7-1/2 year old.

In that time, I had almost everything that was dear to me stripped away except my hope that God would not forsake me. And in that time my faith grew stronger and stronger to the point where God’s desire for what I am to do with the gifts He has bestowed upon me have become revealed, and they surpass my wildest hopes.

Happy Dia del Nino (Argentinian Children’s Day)