Some people choose to be optimistic about the future, adopting a positive mindset calculating that “the glass is half full” so “It’ll be alright.” I believe such optimists are better off than pessimists, for whilst they might at times suffer disappointment, they are spared from much needless worry.
Beyond the categories of optimism and pessimism, there is also hope. One of the good things about hope is that we can all possess it, optimists and pessimists alike. Another good thing, Saint Paul tells us, is that “hope does not disappoint” (Romans 5:5). That’s because hope is not based on human calculations, nor does it require the person to have a rosy outlook. Rather, Christian hope is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love: “who will separate us from the love of Christ? Hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or the sword?” (Romans 8:35)
Paul concludes that nothing in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:39). However bleak our situation might be, we can and will endure because God is with us, and the light will eventually return. And so, there is a beautiful interplay between God’s gift of hope and our own patience and endurance.
Every 25 years the Catholic Church celebrates a Jubilee Year. This year is the two thousand and twenty fifth Jubilee anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ our hope. Pope Francis has given our Jubilee Year the theme “Pilgrims of Hope”. He said “Everyone knows what it is to hope. In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring … For all of us, may the Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope.” (Spes non confundit 1)
As well as being renewed in our own hope, Pope Francis is encouraging us this year to be “tangible signs of hope” for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind. He mentions: People suffering because of war; prisoners; young families; migrants; the sick; the elderly; and the billions of people who are poor and hungry which he says, “is a scandal, an open wound on the body of our humanity.” (Spes non confundit 16)
To people without hope, we “may be able to offer a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed, in the knowledge that, in the spirit of Jesus, these can become, for those who receive them, rich seeds of hope.” (Spes non confundit 18) Of course, when another person’s need is great and our own resources are ample, we are obliged to move beyond small gestures and do something more substantial.
Pope Francis also reminds us of the link between hope and forgiveness. “Forgiveness makes possible a brighter future … It cannot change what happened in the past, yet it can allow us to change the future.” He hopes that the Jubilee year will be a time when we will each have our own sins wiped away in the sacrament of Reconciliation and a time when we open our hearts to forgive others in turn. (Spes non confundit 23)
Whatever the future may hold, ultimately, Pope Francis explains, hope provides us “the certainty that the history of humanity and our own individual history are not doomed to a dead end but are directed to an encounter with the Lord of glory. As a result, we live our lives in expectation of his return and in the hope of living forever in him. (Spes non confundit 19)
I may not know what will happen this afternoon, but I know that one day I shall stand before God’s judgement for which pope Francis says “we should indeed prepare ourselves consciously and soberly … but always from the standpoint of hope … The judgement of God who is love will surely be based on love, and in particular on all that we have done or failed to do with regard to those in need.” (Spes non confundit 22)
The future can be daunting, but with hope we can face it peacefully and joyfully, whatever our circumstances. May we each take active steps in this Jubilee Year to grow in hope and to offer seeds of hope to others.
Follow mnnews.today on Facebook.
