To Hope Means...

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Our guest writer is Afra fcJ, who lives in Manila. Read her last post "To Be Humble and Not Know It!" here.


TO HOPE MEANS...

When the destruction is so overwhelming –
          from smoky mountains of garbage and plastics,
          to floods and uncontrollable forest fires,
          and global warming –
When divisions intensify (in families, work places, schools, the Church, and all around us),
          radicalism is getting stronger and more powerful
          and terrorism, violence
          and harsh and doubting words even from those closest to me fill the air –
 
To hope means
          to choose not to be paralyzed by the size of the problem
          not to close my eyes to the reality – both local and global –
          but to learn what is happening around me
          and take what small steps I can, today.
 
It takes courage
and it is a choice
          to be positive today
          to swallow the doubting words
          to show appreciation instead
          to offer solutions and actively offer my contribution
                    rather than be skeptical and critical and stay on the peripheries
          to learn not to judge
          and learn always to give others another chance, today
 
To hope means         
not to say: ‘never again’, ‘I will never’, or ‘I quit’
          when what matters is to be gentle, humble, obedient
          to stay open
          for God to fill me and mould me and use me
not to say: ‘never again’, ‘I will never’, or ‘I quit’
          when it is about forgiving; about giving someone another chance
          70 times 7 times –
          again, and again, and again –
          have I done it today?
 
When almost everything is instant –
          from noodles to oatmeal, learning a new language to playing a musical instrument
          even communication (from snail mail to email to WhatsApp, which goes instantly and you 
          know whether the other has read your message or not) –
When I have to get what I want (thinking I need it) –
          in or out of season
          now
          and all of it
                    because I don’t want to – and can’t – choose just one:
                    food, opportunities, relationships –
When all around us screams for
          “quicker”, “easier” and
          “my own comfort” –
 
To hope means
          to dare to wait
                    because the good things in life cannot be rushed to ripeness
          to dare to stay uncomfortable
                    in perseverance; in the struggle
          to make all efforts to be patient
          and to stay with what is
 
I call this faithfulness.
 
To hope means
          that the focus is not on myself, but on others
When there is patience towards others
          and forgiveness and acceptance of others
          then to hope is to love
                    and to love is to hope.
 
I need only to look back
          to my experience of being loved by God
                    (whether it happened sometime today, or yesterday,  or a long time ago…)
          to relive that experience again
          and each time it is harder to hope
          I need to come to God
                    knowing God never loses hope in me, and in the world.
 
To hope means to live in faith
 
Then and only then
          I can live with gratitude and hope
          I can live with love and joy
          I can live with faith and fidelity.
 
God, I need only to be aware of your love and your grace in my life
          And that is reason enough to hope…

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