We have the audacity of using the language of hope because of one remarkable fact: what we hope for is already here. Now, this is not your usual meaning of hope. I can hope for sunshine tomorrow, but it may or may not turn out that way. I can hope this crisis with the virus is soon over...but I’m not sure about what “soon” means. It may linger for several weeks or even months.
But the virtue of hope that Pope Francis is writing about (On Hope,2017), is remarkably different. As baptized Christians what we hope for is already present. We just don’t see it or experience it yet. Now, that is unbeatable assurance!
The apostles in their early preaching were very clear. Because of the resurrection of Jesus, his overcoming of death, we will experience the same, for our baptism bonds us with him. This is the reason the early Christians greeted one another with “We shall always be with the Lord.”
This means that every loved one we part with in death, we will see again. It means that “...life is not ended, it is changed.” It means that the sorrow of this crisis we are in now is a passage through a desert of sorts, a winter before spring. Why do we know this? Because the word assures us: “I am making a new heavens and new earth; do you not see it?” No, to be honest, we don’t. But it is happening.
As we enter this Easter season we each are challenged to answer: Do we believe this? If we do, then there is quiet assurance in the depths of our soul, while the tears run down our cheeks. We are assured by our God, walking in our skin, that a future already awaits us. “I will do this, says the Lord.” This is Christian hope. In faith, we keep walking toward what calls us forward to our future. It is a reality already there.
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