Pastor's Corner

Let us journey together in hope 

• Lent is an invitation to open our hearts to God’s grace so that we can celebrate with great joy the paschal victory of Christ the Lord over sin and death 
• Jesus crucified and risen is the heart of our faith and the pledge of our hope 
• Hope is not “wishful thinking” it is trust in the promise that has been given, eternal life 

Where do we begin? 

Exodus: from slavery to freedom 

• Evokes the lengthy journey of the people of Israel to the Promised Land 
• Path from slavery to freedom as willed and guided by the Lord who loves his people and remains ever faithful to them 
• This is the human experience of many today; we cannot separate it from those in need of an exodus right now 

• First call is to conversion 
• We are all on a journey, experiencing the exodus in some way (solidarity) 
• Be real, examine your conscience: 
• Where am I right now? Am I walking, standing still, or walking back? Am I hesitant to go where I know the Lord needs me to go? Am I being honest in my resolve to sin no more? What is degrading my dignity? 
• Place yourself in solidarity with migrants and foreigners 

• Second call is to journey together 
• That is at the heart of synodality, a call to walk side by side with others, we are not lone travelers 
• The Holy Spirit will always send us to others so that we might recognize in them our shared common dignity as God’s children  
• Implies letting go of prejudgments, without envy, without domination, without hypocrisy, without exclusion 
• Who do you tend to ignore? Who makes you uncomfortable? Who do you tend to reject? 

• Third call is to hope together 
• The promise has been given for all, victory of easter is for all peoples 
• Am I convinced that I need salvation? Or do I act as if I can save myself? Do I long for salvation and call upon God’s help to attain it? Do I concretely experience the hope that enables me to interpret the events of history and inspires in me a commitment to justice and fraternity, to care for our common home and in such a way that no one feels excluded? 

Understanding Hope as “faith based” 

In hope we are saved 

• Hope is a key word in Biblical faith, they often seem interchangeable 
• Hebrews 10:22 links “the fullness of faith” to “the confession of our hope” 
• First Peter exhorts Christians to be ready to give an answer for the reason of their hope  
• Hope cannot be found prior to Christ, it is a gift of faith in Christ Jesus 
• “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12) 
• Mark of Christianity is to live in hope, knowing we have a future, and living that future here and now 
• the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. 
• the Christian message was not only “informative” but “performative” 

Example: Josephine Bakhita 

• canonized by Pope John Paul II.  

• Born around 1869 in Darfur in Sudan.  

• At the age of nine, she was kidnapped by slave-traders, beaten till she bled, and sold five times in the slave-markets of Sudan.  

• Eventually, she found herself working as a slave for the mother and the wife of a general, and there she was flogged every day till she bled; as a result of this she bore 144 scars throughout her life.  

• Finally, in 1882, she was bought by an Italian merchant for the Italian consul Callisto Legnani, who returned to Italy as the Mahdists advanced. Here, after the terrifying “masters” who had owned her up to that point, Bakhita came to know a totally different kind of “master”—in Venetian dialect, which she was now learning, she used the name “paron” for the living God, the God of Jesus Christ.  

• Up to that time she had known only masters who despised and maltreated her, or at best considered her a useful slave. Now, however, she heard that there is a “paron” above all masters, the Lord of all lords, and that this Lord is good, goodness in person.  

• She came to know that this Lord even knew her, that he had created her—that he actually loved her. She too was loved, and by none other than the supreme “Paron”, before whom all other masters are themselves no more than lowly servants. She was known and loved and she was awaited.  

• What is more, this master had himself accepted the destiny of being flogged and now he was waiting for her “at the Father’s right hand”. Now she had “hope” —no longer simply the modest hope of finding masters who would be less cruel, but the great hope: “I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me—I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good.”  

• Through the knowledge of this hope she was “redeemed”, no longer a slave, but a free child of God. She understood what Paul meant when he reminded the Ephesians that previously they were without hope and without God in the world—without hope because without God. Hence, when she was about to be taken back to Sudan, Bakhita refused; she did not wish to be separated again from her “Paron”.  

• On 9 January 1890, she was baptized and confirmed and received her first Holy Communion from the hands of the Patriarch of Venice.  

• On 8 December 1896, in Verona, she took her vows in the Congregation of the Canossian Sisters and from that time onwards, besides her work in the sacristy and in the porter’s lodge at the convent, she made several journeys round Italy in order to promote the missions: the liberation that she had received through her encounter with the God of Jesus Christ, she felt she had to extend, it had to be handed on to others, to the greatest possible number of people. The hope born in her which had “redeemed” her she could not keep to herself; this hope had to reach many, to reach everybody. 

What do we hope for when we hope? 

Rite of Baptism 

Celebrant: “What do you ask of the Church?”  
Answer: “Faith”.  
Celebrant: “And what does faith give you?”  
Answer: “Eternal life” 

• Becoming Christians is the expectation that faith, which includes the corporeal nature of the Church and her sacraments, will give life to their child—eternal life.  
• Faith is the substance of hope 
• Do you really want to live eternally? Sounds dreadful? Sounds boring? What are we going to do all day in eternity? Just worship God? You get upset about Mass going over an hour now… just wait… Mass for eternity! Eternal life sounds like a curse rather than a gift 
• Define “Eternal” and define “life” 
• Life 
• we experience all sorts of things in this life… even the things we love and don’t want to lose something hurt us… so life itself is frightening 
• Eternal 
• We experience things that are transitory, we have no living concept of the eternal, so really it is a big unknown, and things that are unknown are frightening…  
• “Eternal life” We can only attempt to imagine what eternal life is like… but Jesus describes it as joy… “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22) 
• Hope needs faith, because if faith is to know and trust Jesus, and he came to give me eternal life, and eternal life is too scary for me to comprehend, then I can only hope in eternal life if I have faith, trust, that indeed it will fulfil the joy I desire 

Living Faith-Based Hope in the modern age 

• Human hope  
• Technology offers us opportunities to envision the future, there is joy in seeing how far we have gone, and what we can accomplish… hope in curing cancer for example 
• Human hope is progress, and progress is made possible when our reason and our freedom work together 
• Progress pushes the limits, we can do things “because we can”  

 

• Faith-Based Hope  
• Hope is faith in progress, it is when our reason (intellect) and freedom (will) work together to build up the Kingdom of God 
• Understanding reason and freedom as gifts of God, as faculties of the soul, mean that hope as faith in progress helps direct the soul towards its ultimate end, eternal life 
• Reason needs faith so that the will can choose eternal life 
• What am I doing right now to progress towards eternal life?  
• How can I use my faith-based hope to take advantage of technological progress? 
• We need to learn how to hope for eternal life, it requires an exercise of the soul 

Prayer as a school of hope 

• Prayer is the disposition of the heart to God 
• God listens to me when no one else will 
• I can always talk to God when there is no one to talk to 
• God is here when no one else is 
• God can help me when no one else can help me 
• I am not alone even when there is no one else here 
• Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan 
• 13 years in jail, solitary confinement 
• Wrote “Prayer of hope” 
• His life of prayer during solitary confinement gave him an increase power of hope, leading him to others once he was out 
• Hope cannot be extinguished 
• St. Augustin on hope 
• Prayer is an exercise of desire 
• God created us for greatness, but the human heart is too small, it must therefore be expanded 
• The desire for God stretches the heart, increasing our capacity to receive Him 
• “Suppose that God wishes to fill you with honey [a symbol of God’s tenderness and goodness]; but if you are full of vinegar, where will you put the honey?”  
• Prayer is the process of giving God permission to help me recognize the vinegar in my life, it is the process of purification, so that I can be more free for God, and thus be open to others 
• in prayer we learn what we need to ask God, to pray as we aught 
• We ask that we might purify our desires and our hopes 
• We pray for freedom, for God to awaken our conscience, to let God shape my thinking, to learn to listen to God  
• Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan 
• When you don’t know how to pray, hold fast to the texts of the Church’s prayer both private and public 

 Pray always, in all ways 

• Prayer opens the heart for God, and hope increases. God moves me towards others, so that hope can be shared with them, everyone needs to hear the good news that come from Christian hope. That is why I must always be ready to give answer to everyone who asks to give reasons for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3:15) 

 What are the reasons for your hope?