Stay Hopeful

 

"We earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of hope until the end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises."  (Hebrews 6:10-20)

It’s not unusual to get tired of the same old routine. And sometimes with all of the busyness and stress of daily life in today’s world, we have a hard time squeezing in the good that God asks each of us to do.

Christianity is a religion of hope and Christians are called to be shining and resilient witnesses of hope because Christians believe that the God who first blessed us with life wants us to share fully in the joy and love and beauty and goodness that is God.  But the very nature of hope reminds us that we’re on a journey toward a fulfillment that we can anticipate (and, in some way, already experience) but can’t yet completely enjoy.  Hope orients our lives to a future good that absolutely transcends anything we could ever give ourselves but which, precisely because we do not yet possess it completely, we can begin to doubt.

Hebrews warns us not to become “sluggish” regarding the object of our hope but instead to keep our attention fixed on it.  It’s a perceptive and timely reminder that affirms not only how easy it is to turn away from the good that God has in store for us, but also to begin to doubt its very possibility.  Or, perhaps more likely, we fill our lives with so many distractions and attach our hearts to so many lesser goods that we gradually forget that there’s something greater, something far lovelier, and something infinitely more hopeful to which God calls us.  In order to avoid those disheartening possibilities, there are two things we can do.

First, as Hebrews reminds us, we must remember that all of us are heirs to the love, goodness, and mercy of God.  God wants to bless us and will bless us because God, as the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus vividly testify, is faithful to His promises.

Second, as Mark’s Gospel illustrates (Mark 2:23-28), we keep hope alive not when we’re gloomy legalists who live to find fault with others, but when we seek to do good in whatever way we can.

Based on my own life’s experiences, I think one of the ways to stay excited about living our faith is to make sure we switch things up from time to time.  Try a different prayer form; play some Christian music during our prayer time; read a good book about living our Catholic faith or study the life of a saint we don’t know.  There are some great smartphone and computer apps to help.

I try to take some time each day just remembering that Jesus went to the cross so that I could enter heaven someday.  Whenever I really take time to quiet myself and thank Him for His sacrifice, my heart fills with joy and thanksgiving and I want everyone to hear the Good News.

May the Lord refill each of us with the fire we need to "demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of hope until the end".