Hope

Sanctify christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation for the reason for your hope.

These are the words of St. Peter in the second reading for today.

Hear them again: Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation for the reason for your hope.

IN church circles, in school, in homes, in places about we often find ourselves discussing the topic of faith and or love.

We talk often about faith as that ascent to God, allowing God to lead.

We also talk often about love; in fact, we seldom tire of speaking or waxing about love.

But we do not speak often about Hope.

Hope is important. It is the power that gets us moving and keeps us moving. It is what keeps us holding on when everything in u wants to let go. It holds us firm when all things fall and crumble around.

What gives you hope? What keeps you moving? What gets you up each morning when the alarm clock rings? What keeps you coming home each day to your family and your children?

This past week we celebrated the end of the school year. And for the teachers it was a celebration.

And part of the closing ceremony we handed out the perfect attendance awards. There were 6 students who received the award.

It the catholic school, the standards are different than public school. In order to get the award in catholic school, yo cannot miss one minute of school. Thin about that. This is no easy task.

But we had 6 students who didn't miss one minute of one hour of one day of school. They received a certificate along with a $20 dollar gift card to walmart.

After it was announced that they would get the gift card to walmart, we had everyone talking about not missing school next year. This was their motivation.

Such is hope, it motivates. SO what is your motivation as you move through life, through lives of others, as you make it down the road.

What is the anchor that holds you firm when everything in you wants to let go.

A few years back our Pope wrote an encyclical to the faithful. This letter to the faithful was entitled, "SPe Salvi" or "saved in Hope."

In this letter the Vicar of Christ wrote to you and I he states that "Christian Faith is hope. It has paved a way to the future. In Christ the dark door of time has been thrown open; the future has been laid bare."

In Christ we can see around the bend; we know what awaits us as the mystery of tomorrow unfolds for each us.

In Christ we have hope and the one who has hope "lives differently" and the one who has hope "has been given the gift of new life."

As he wrote about Hope he also gave several examples of where we encounter hope in our life.

The first place he mentioned was in prayer. The person who prays is a person of hope. Prayer engenders who.

Even when it seems no one is listening to us; even when it seems no one cares; God listens; God cares.

Now we have all been in that place where we think no none is listening to us; we have all been in that place where it seems our words fall on deaf ears. Parents to children and children to parents and spouses to each other. All of us have that experience.


We also have been in that place where we felt no one cares. In our society we often judge usefulness as the standard for care. If yo are useful to me then I care about you.

My almost 90 year old grandmother in te nursing home has mentioned that she feels as if on one cares. Her family dropped her off and forgot about her. She likes the place and enjoys being there, but are sentiment is felt by many.


THis is why prayer is hope engendering. God cares absolutely. Prayer isn't about getting what we want but rather about being purified and stretched to seek the things of the kingdom.

Often times when I speak to people whose life is falling apart and they are ready to give up, i will ask them what their prayer life is like. 90% tell me they have no time to pray.

I tell them going through life without set time for prayer is like trying to use the microwave without it being plugged in. It just doesn't get the job done. Prayer keeps us plugged in for the journey; we tap into the power source that is Christ.

The second setting of Hope the Pope mentioned was that of suffering.

Now this may sound strange. Who goes to suffering to find hope? In fact, most of us try to reduce suffering as much a possible.

Yet as much as we try we can never eliminate suffering. To eliminate suffering would be to eliminate humanity.

Suffering is part of life. We suffer the alarm clock each morning. We suffer our muscles to walk. We suffer our knees to bend in worship.

We can not eliminate suffering but we can choose what to suffer for. We can intentionalize suffering in our life. We can choose to suffer for goodness itself and for truth. When we do this we encounter hope for the journey.

This is where the mentality of "offering it up" comes in. When we offering things up we unite them to the suffering of Christ and we experience his strength for the journey.

Here is an example.

Some years back in my first assignment a man in his mid fifties came and wanted to join the church so that he could receive communion.

SO I invited him to come to RCIA. RCIA was too much for him. HE could not handle it. HE had a mentality of about a 4th grader. He was smart but just could not comprehend as quickly as others. SO we started to meet one on one for about a hour a week.

In our conversations, he informed me that he had a roommate. This particular roommate had schizophrenia. ANd often she would not take her medication. When she did not she became mean and somewhat hateful toward him; she would verbally abuse him as well as throw things. IF was taxing on him.

So I asked him why he let her stay in the house. She wasn't paying for anything so why bother. THis was what he replied.

HE said, "If GOd can suffer for me and for my weakness could I not do the same for others."

Think about that for a moment. If God can suffer for me and for my weakness could I not do the same for others.

Here is a man who had sanctified Christ as Lord of his heart. HEre is a man who knew how to give an explanation for the reason for his hope, for what kept him moving forward in life.

Here is a man who "lived differently" who received the gift of "new life" in Christ.

Be hopeful. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart and keep moving.