Lenten Reflection
RESURRECTION: SIGN OF HOPE
Richard Hart, Capuchin
Hope or the risen life of Jesus is a forceful way to accept powerlessness in our lives or in the lives of others. If anything invigorates us with a passion for the possible, Christ’s resurrection does. Hopelessness, however, has become rampant because we seem unable to bind up our wounds, much less heal our troubled world. Racial hatred still has not abated. Gnawing hunger and unbelievable poverty continue to plague us, especially in the Third World countries. The struggle to cope with hunger and poverty has become a giant poker game where the rich seem to have all the high cards. Deceit and corruption eat away at the fabric of our government in an unparalleled fashion. Many have become calloused to pollution, sectarian hatred, war, and terrorism. We live in a teetering economy which leads to discouragement and even despair.
The disciples on the road to Emmaus also felt discouraged and downcast. They had pinned all their hopes on Jesus, only to see him die on the cross. They thought this was the end and said, “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Lk 24:21) It was not the end but only the beginning for them once they had met Jesus again in the breaking of the bread. Many of us are still on the road to Emmaus. Allowing ourselves to become soured and embittered by the weariness of continual opposition and dampening of our ideals, only leads to frustration and discouragement. It means that we have not learned that the powerlessness of the cross leads to the power of the resurrection.
Instead of writing obituary columns, singing funeral dirges, we should be writing editorials of hope, or singing resurrection songs. If we believe in the resurrection, there is always hope of revival and survival. Jesus did the impossible. He came back to life, but in a far different way than any person who has returned from the dead. He walked through locked doors. He was able to appear in one place and suddenly in another. The impossible became possible. There was no more struggle and conflict in his life. What he made possible by his resurrection will also become possible for us. We carry on his mission today reaching out to the poor, the hungry, the lonely, and others who are in much greater need than ourselves. St. Paul assures us, “Hope does not disappoint,”(Rom 5:5) We need unbounded hope in Christ’s resurrection which makes all things possible. Hope in Christ’s resurrection bursts open the present, links us to the past, and drives us toward a future of possibilities.