Dear siblings in Christ,
This past Sunday we heard the good news that, by sheer, astonishing grace, despite our sin and shame and shortcomings, Jesus eagerly includes us in the joyful work of cultivating new life in this broken world. We are not spectators or pawns or cogs in a machine, but active participants in the salvation of the world. I encouraged us to not be afraid to leave our old identities and habits behind, and follow Jesus into the deep waters of solidarity, where we give ourselves over to a life of liberation for all.
This is the new way of life that our baptismal covenant is meant to radicalize us into. We’re still learning and discerning what particular shape that radicalization will take for us as a church and for each of us individually. But we do know that part of giving ourselves over to a life of liberation is to simply continue to participate in the community Jesus is creating among us at The Table.
So let us continue to gather with one another to worship: hearing God’s word, singing and praying together, and communing with one another as we receive the gifts of God in bread and wine at the altar. Let us continue to cultivate the culture of being the Body of Christ together in mutuality and solidarity, with open arms to a world in desperate need of good news.
To do this well, we need hope! I continue to be helped by slowly reading through The Spirit of Hope, by Byung-Chul Han right now, and I wanted to share another quote from the book from a practitioner of hope: human rights advocate Václav Havel, who opposed the communist regime in Czechloslovakia. I am still grappling with his remarkable observations about hope:
Hope… is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpropitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope us. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
This is how I see the life and work of liberation we are called to: something that makes sense to do, regardless of how it turns out. Giving ourselves to a life of liberation is what it means to believe in the resurrection of Jesus, I think. So today, may the Spirit of God infuse your soul with this kind of “irrational” hope that strengthens us to give ourselves to this life of liberation.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Ben
