The Letter
to the Hebrews exhorts us “to hold fast to the hope that lies before us.” [Hebrews
6:10-20] Christianity is unabashedly 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. Our life is an unfolding
journey to God—an itinerary to beatitude that culminates in joyous communion
with God and the saints—and hope keeps us on the right path. But the very nature of hope reminds us that we
are pilgrims on a journey toward a fulfillment that we can anticipate (and, in
some way, already experience), but cannot yet completely enjoy. Hope orients our lives to a future good that
utterly transcends anything we could ever give ourselves, but which, precisely
because we do not yet possess it fully, can begin to doubt.
The passage
from Hebrews warns us not to become “sluggish” regarding the object of our
hope, but instead to keep our attention firmly 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 there is something greater, something far lovelier, and
something infinitely more hopeful to which God calls us.
In order to
avoid these woeful possibilities, I think there are two things we can do. First, as Hebrews reminds us, we must remember
that we are heirs to the love, goodness, and mercy of God. God wants to bless every one of us in
unimaginable ways by sharing with us everything that God is and God, as the
life, death, and resurrection of Jesus testify, is faithful to His promises. Second, hope will anchor and steady us,
keeping us on the right path, if instead of imitating the gloomy legalists in Mark’s
Gospel [Mark 2:23-28] who live to find fault with others, we seek, like Jesus,
to do good in whatever way we can whenever we can.
May the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may
know what is the hope that belongs to our call.
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