Hope Springs Eternal

23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

Is 35:4-7a

Jas 2: 1-5

Mt 7:31-37

Human beings are creatures of hope. It’s inbred into us. Hope is what keeps us alive in a hostile world. Hope is the only thing that keeps us sane in this insane world. We look at all the pain in the world and say, there has to be more than this. Without hope our lives would lack any meaning whatsoever. Without hope we would not even bother.

The Israelites were in a very dangerous position. The Assyrians were threatening to wipe them off the face of the earth because they stood between them and the Egyptian empire. Israel could never match the Assyrians militarily, and they did not know where to turn for help.

The prophet Isaiah offered the Israelites hope. He tells them today not to fear, because the Lord would deliver them. But you know, it didn’t work out so well for the Israelites. They were wiped out by the Assyrians. Thousands were slain and the rest taken away, never to return to their homeland.

It seems like Isaiah was whistling past the graveyard, giving them false hope. They called upon the Lord and trusted in him, but it didn’t stop the Assyrians. It seems that many times humanity overrides the salvation of God and causes suffering and pain anyway. It seems futile and naïve to rely upon God to save us.  

It’s easy to become cynical. I know of all the individuals suffering in the parish. Cancer and death and broken marriages and economic hardship. I see families all the time who pray and pray for a cure for this or that disease, only to have their loved one die anyway. I know people who have been praying for years for a job but are still unemployed. The prophets say that the Lord will save us but they don’t say when. Are we fated to suffer here on earth and only see the fulfillment of our prayers when we get to heaven? 

When I first read today’s psalm I said to myself, “Yeah, right. God doesn’t intervene in the lives of men that intimately today.” There are millions of poor and suffering people in the world today. Nothing ever changes. But then I realized that I was too far away from it. I was thinking of statistics and not of individuals.

Jesus never healed crowds, he healed individuals. Crowds do not experience conversion, individuals do. Miracles do not happen to crowds, but to individuals. Jesus takes the deaf mute away from the crowd and gets really personal with him.

People are smart. Crowds can be stupid. People are good. Crowds can be evil and cruel. There’s something about being in a crowd that can easily make it into a mob. Individuals didn’t condemn Jesus, the mob did. 

Crowds don’t suffer. Individuals suffer. Suffering is the most personal experience we can ever have. We can share joy, but it is really impossible for anyone else to truly understand and share in your individual suffering. 

Salvation is such a personal thing. It is ultimately between you and God. I have never seen entire nations turn back to the Lord, but I have seen individuals do so. I have not seen miracles happen to societies, but I have seen miracles happen in individuals’ lives. 

Jesus is the perfect man. He showed us how we are to live if we are to be truly human. He was able to heal the sick and turn men’s hearts to the truth. He took care of people’s physical suffering and hunger because he was able to work miracles. He knew that he had to alleviate physical suffering before people could be open to salvation. 

But now he’s gone back to heaven and we are left here to our own devices. Jesus destroyed death, but death is still with us. Jesus healed the sick, but we still suffer. Jesus left us with a message of hope, but still we despair. We hope, but is it all just a coping mechanism. Do we just cling to a thread of hope in a hopeless world because we cannot deal with the alternative?

Hope is such a personal thing also, but hope can be multiplied and sustained in and by the community of the Church. And so what if Jesus is no longer here on the earth, we are. Jesus Christ is still present in his Church. We are called to continue what he started. The gospel is hope itself. We cannot be cynical about life. We can and must be individuals of hope, and together as the Body of Christ we can bring that hope to the world. But it must start in your own heart. The Church cannot bring hope to the world if you do not have hope in your own heart first.

Take the words of the psalmist today and switch them around a bit. 

The God of Jacob keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, when we ourselves are faithful to the teachings of Jesus, work for justice for all, and take care of the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of all those in need among us.

The LORD sets captives free when we turn away from the slavery of sin in our own lives and live as we were created to live.

The LORD gives sight to the blind when we first open our own eyes and then help those who are living the lies of society to see the truth;

The LORD raises up those who are bowed down when we lift them up, help them get back on their feet, and stand tall with dignity.

The LORD loves the just when we love justice; the LORD protects strangers when we show hospitality to the strangers among us.

The fatherless and the widow the LORD sustains when we strengthen the family,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts when we make those thousands of small choices every day to do what we know to be good and right.

The LORD shall reign forever; your God, O Zion, through all generations, when we make God the king and center of our lives.

We are a people of hope because we are the people of God. Our hope springs up in us as individuals, and our hope combines with people of faith the world over to bring hope to all of humanity. Hope is what binds us all together and it is hope that draws us all to God. And that truly is good news.