Really…? In Every Situation?

When I first read 1Thessalonians 5:17-18 I caught my breath. I could do OK with “Rejoice always (actually a little hesitation here…), pray without ceasing (I protested, after all, I do need to do the laundry…), and give thanks in every situation, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” Now here is where I caught my breath. Really…? In EVERY situation???


When this happens with scripture, you can go one of two ways: either you dismiss the text as pious exaggeration, or you question if you really understand what is behind what it is asking of you. Guess what I chose.


November is the month of thanksgiving. We celebrate gratitude as a national holiday. I figured it would be good if I ate humble pie and admit I was rolling my eyes and protesting this text because I really didn’t understand it. So here is where that took me. Actually, it turned my life on its ear.

Now about this “Rejoice always…” thing. I don’t think I’m the only person who would rather weep after I watch the evening news. As for the prayer thing, I can’t be on my knees 24/7. My bills need to be paid and I need to do my laundry. As for the thanking in all situations, thanking is not my first impulse when someone is laying on the horn because I’m driving too slowly.


Then it dawned on me that I’m living on the underside of the paschal mystery…the passion and death side. What if I lived from the other side …the resurrection and life side…the side I’ve been baptized into? Suddenly I found myself rejoicing at the outrage evident in the news over the evil allowed to continue. I found myself praying for those folks at the border in between each bill I paid and each towel I folded in the laundry basket. And lo and behold, I found myself thanking for the fact that no evildoers…not even the political power-brokers…can withstand the power that tosses death onto the scrapheap and transforms human life. It’s quite a view from that other side of the paschal mystery. It’s the view faith promises and hope offers.


November is also the month when we remember those we have sent on into that new life. Yes, I still weep at the news. But I also rejoice that the promise still holds. I still need to shop, pay my bills and do the laundry…but now the background music of my prayer has the backs of those slugging it out across the world and in my own city. I also find myself thanking when the challenges to my complacency and fear come…for they call me out of my mediocre love to compassion and involvement. Yes, it’s quite another view from the other side of the paschal mystery. Try it. You’ll like it.


I rejoice that your resurrection has already begun; help me midwife it.
Marinade each breath, each blink, each heartbeat, in love to bring it on.
And thank you…for calling me to help create such a certain future. Amen.

Hoping against Hope

“Hope opens new horizons, making us capable of dreaming what is not even imaginable.”   -Pope Francis

Were you amazed when the Berlin Wall came down? Me too. It was beyond my wildest dreams. No war, no fighting…not a shot fired. People just came and started to knock that wall down, and the soldiers guarding it did nothing to stop them. I think this is what Pope Frances means.

Hoping when that little inner voice says we are crazy is not easy. Poor Abraham waited and waited. Still, no child as God promised. But in due time that child came. Recently our liturgy reminded us, “Write down the vision clearly...for the vision still has its time…it presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.” (Habakkuk 2:2-4) Our difficulty is like Abraham’s. When, O Lord? Yet the timing will be perfect. God is faithful, and so we wait. We live in hope.

The Christophers describe what hope really looks like: “Hope looks for the good in people instead of harping on the worst. Hope opens doors where despair closes them. Hope discovers what can be done instead of grumbling about what cannot.”

A final word on hope from the delightful poet, Charles Peguy:

I am, God says, Master of three virtues.

Faith is a faithful spouse.

Charity is a mother burning with devotion.

But hope is a very small girl.

I am, God says, Master of three virtues.

Charity is she who extends herself over the centuries.

But my little hope is the one who each morning

Says Good Day to us.

And so we keep company with one another, and in hope wish one another Good day…