Why We Have Reason to Hope

A few weeks ago, the day after Christmas, one of my friends was telling me about her celebrations and ended off saying, “My heart is full!” I smiled on hearing that. What a lovely way to describe the overflowing blessings of a grateful heart!

I’m sure the end of the last year brought similar sentiments to many people. I always enjoy our FCJ community’s celebration of Christmas here in Manila as it gives us many opportunities to share joy and special moments with people around us. This year, there was plenty of joy to be had in the smiling faces, cheerful sounds and delicious smells of the season, but what touched me most was several encounters we had that revealed a little of the wonder and vulnerability of humanity.

One of these encounters took place when our community went carolling in a hospital with some of the young people with whom we work. Our objective was to bring some joy and sympathy to those patients and their families who had to spend the Christmas season in hospital. For some of our group it was quite an overwhelming experience to visit the spinal ward and see the patients, many of whom were lying in bed, unable to move, and to hear their stories of a life suddenly disrupted because of an unexpected fall, or an accident. Many of these patients would spend months in this hospital. The day we visited happened to be the 20th birthday of one of the young women patients, who had slipped on a wet floor about a month ago and now could not walk or sit up. When we sang “Happy Birthday” for her, her mother was moved to tears. I could only imagine her sorrow at being here, and the fierce hope she had that her daughter might recover and move on with her life.

Another such encounter was when we visited a squatter area near our house where we offer weekly tutorials to children and, every year at Christmas, a Christmas party. Since it was raining, we couldn’t have the party as we had planned, so we just found a sheltered area and proceeded to give out the presents that we had brought to the 75 children we had identified in advance. Some of the children came with their parents, others with friends. Some had been dressed up in nice new clothes for the party, while others were dirty and ran up barefoot in the rain.

As always happens there, though, other children (not among the 75) and their parents also came crowding round so that when the presents ran out, there were still people hoping and asking for something more. And as happens each year, we had to turn them away, however badly we felt for them as we knew that the people who lived here were very poor. “We have to know our limits,” one of our sisters explained to me. “How many times in the past have we gone off and bought more and more presents… but there were always more and more people who came! There is no way we could satisfy all the need there is here.”

While the experience left me feeling a little hopeless, I was also touched by the gestures of the parents who were there accompanying their children, obviously trying to do the best they could for them in the difficult material poverty that they found themselves in. The new clothes and shoes of some of the children were also obvious signs of that love and care.

These encounters were reminders to me that despite the festive mood of Christmas here, with parties galore and Christmas tunes in the air, life and its struggles still go on. As one of our sisters shared during our prayer together on Christmas day: “There is so much pressure on people to be happy and join in the celebrations, but the reality is that many people are still carrying heavy burdens. The real joy that Christmas brings – in the birth of Christ into the world – is God’s assurance that even in all the hardships and sorrow that we go through, God is in the midst of it, walking with us, at one with us. That is the real mystery of the Incarnation.”

Sister Claire, the leader of our FCJ Society, also wrote of the hope that Christmas offers in her annual Christmas letter to our sisters. “As the months and years pass,” she wrote, “God continues to draw us into the future, and this is true even when the scenario is not promising. We watch the news, we read our newspapers, and we see the intense pain and frightening polarities of our world. People continue to starve, wars drag on, and everywhere there are terrible inequalities. … We often feel helpless and guilty because there is so little we can do, and if we’re honest, we know that we ourselves can be caught up in our own need for comfort and security.” 

However, she urged us to resist the natural impulse to give up, to become hardened, and instead to follow the path of gentleness and trust in God. “Our world can be changed not by our own efforts or on our terms, but by the work of God within it and within us. … No, there is no facile answer to the suffering that surrounds us and yes, so many questions remain unanswered. But because God is present among us – journeying with us, we continue to live in hope.”

On that note, I pray for all of us in this new year, that we may allow our hearts to truly encounter and be touched by the joys and sorrows of the world around us – and also our own. May this move us to compassion and to change, trusting that while what we can do might only seem like a drop in the ocean, the One who made the oceans and holds them together is also working alongside us, lovingly bringing all of creation to perfection in ways beyond our understanding.

Food for thought:
Where do I see God working in our world?
How can I light a candle of hope for the world in the year ahead?