What do we hope God will provide in response
to our spiritual longing?
Even as we speak, we are waging an "all hands on deck"
war with COVID-19.
A solemn reminder that a virus 1,000 times smaller
than a grain of sand can bring entire populations
and global economies to their knees.
When we have conquered this, and we will,
may we be equally committed to freeing the world
from the virus of hunger, and freeing
neighborhoods and nations from the virus of poverty.
May we hope for schools where students are taught,
not terrified they will be shot.
And for the gift of personal dignity for every child of God,
unmarred by any form of racial, ethnic, or religious prejudice.
Undergirding all of this is our relentless hope
for greater devotion to the two greatest of all commandments--
to love God by keeping his counsel,
and to love our neighbors by showing kindness, compassion,
patience, and forgiveness.
We all need to believe that what we desire in righteousness
can someday, some way, somehow yet be ours.
Indeed, if we finally lose hope, we
lose our last sustaining possession.
It was over the very gate of hell
that Dante wrote a warning to all those
traveling through his divina commedia.
"Abandon all hope," he said, "ye who enter here."
Truly, when hope is gone, what we have left
is the flame of the inferno raging on every side.
We can hope.
We should hope.
Even when facing the most insurmountable odds.
So, when our backs are to the wall,
and as the hymn says, "other helpers fail and comforts
flee," among our most indispensable virtues
will be this precious gift of hope,
linked inextricably to our faith in God and our charity
to others.
I testify that the future is going
to be as miracle-filled and bountifully blessed
as the past has been.
We have every reason to hope for blessings even greater
than those we've already received.
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