True and False Hope

“Hope accepts misunderstandings as the price for serving the greater good of others.”
                                                                                                                         --The Christophers


We can be duped by false hope, Pope Francis warns us in his reflections on hope. As we begin this New Year, we would do well to put in to practice a well-known Dominican value: “Seldom affirm; never deny; always distinguish.” It takes distinguishing to spot fake from true hope.

Useless and foolish, false hope lures us to be misled by the idols that want our trust, making these “works of our hands” the sole objects of our hope. Yes, it’s idolatry, plain and simple, but dressed up in modern clothes, and its drawing power is strong.


We all have our moments, those times when we meet life’s difficulties, and we experience how fragile our trust is, and how strong is our need for certainty…for tangible, concrete assurances. And here lies the danger. We find ourselves seeking surface consolations that seem to fill the void of loneliness and relieve the fatigue of believing. Powerless and deceptive, these idols are like pacifiers given to babies: they promise everything, but deliver nothing. “Maybe this time I’ll win the lottery,” we think, or another helping of potatoes might suave the deeper hunger I have for friendship and understanding.


The psalmist adds an insight here that is bone-chilling: “…they have eyes but do not see, ears that do not hear…hands that do not feel…Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them. (Ps. 115:4-8) I don’t know about you, but that stops me in my tracks. Become like them? Sounds dehumanizing to me, but it’s true. Often we are more content with the surface hope that a false idol gives us than with the deep and sure hope the Lord gives us.


Twisted philosophies, short-sighted political perspectives, power, possessions, unlimited health, they all can be idolatrous, luring us down the wrong path and robbing us of real happiness. The psalm is clear: we become like our idols. We no longer have anything to say, any way to help, any hope of changing things. We are unable to smile, to give of ourselves. We become incapable of love. But the psalm continues: “…trust in the Lord…The Lord has been mindful of us; he will bless us.”


Even in bad times the Holy One remembers. This is true hope, one that does not disappoint. Idols are fake, make-believe, but here is hope’s reality. True hope allows us to enter God’s own remembrance…we become like him. This Holy One never disappoints. Now that is something solid to take along as we enter the New Year, and we Racine Dominicans are rooted in hope.


“Here is the wonderful reality of hope: in trusting in the Lord, we become like him. His blessing transforms us into his children who share in his life.”

                                                                                                                                   - Pope Francis
                                                                                           On Hope, Chicago: Loyola Press, 2017.