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From the Associate…
HOPE AMID UNCERTAINTY
In his first letter, St. Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, gives us this exhortation: "Gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1:13) An interesting set of directives: First, gird up your minds, get them ready for action, fully alert; second, be sober, clear and hard-headed about reality, resisting flighty illusions; and third, set your hope fully (not just partially) on the grace coming at the revelation of Christ (his Second Coming).
We are now as a nation and a world facing a time of uncertainty, of possible war and bloodshed, of increasing international and inter-religious tensions. How this might affect us and those we love is beyond our ability to tell. What is clear is that, beyond praying, (very important), there is not much most of us can do about this. We find ourselves dealing with a world over which we have, if we are honest, little control, facing situations that we did not invite and had no way to prepare for. In fact this is always the case, but times like these bring the precarious nature of our earthly life more clearly into focus. It is precisely to this situation that St. Peter is speaking.
We are made to live in hope: not just a little hope, not just for a little slice of happiness now and then, but in absolute and ultimate hope. We are meant to hope that all will go very well for us and for our world, that the drama of our lives and of the human race will have a happy ending. We are made to hope for perfection. It is natural to us, it is God's desire for us, it is one of the great Christian virtues. When we lose this hope, we wither and die. But we need to know what can support such absolute hope. False hopes, illusory hopes, lead to despair. Because false hopes always fail us. Sooner or later they leave us disappointed, and the more we have hoped falsely, the deeper our anguish will be.
This is why God, who loves us as a father loves his beloved children, is forever attempting to address true and false hope. He wants true hope to grow strong and sure within us, and he wants false hope to be completely destroyed. And what is false hope, according to the wisdom of God? It is hope that is based on what is passing. Hope in our looks. Hope in our finances. Hope in our health. Hope in world peace. Hope in building a perfect world here, apart from that New Creation Christ himself is bringing about. These hopes will, sooner or later, will surely fail us.
Rather, says St. Peter, set your hope fully on the revelation of Jesus Christ. Don't turn away from this world, keep your mind strong and alert, work for love and peace and justice. But don't allow yourself to hope in anything apart from the kingdom of Christ. This is true and perfect freedom. "We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Cor 4:18)
As we face this time of uncertainty, let's allow it to do its work in us. Let's allow it to destroy false hopes, that true
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