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Our world is in crisis! No surprise there! We know the litany of world problems from global warming to the seeming end of civil discourse, from the insidious and malignant damage that continues due to systemic racism to the continuing battle with individual rights, often trumping any sense of the common good. Added to all of this is the uncertainty and isolation that Covid has amplified in the lives of so many in our communities.
Amid all of this, our tendency is built into our brain chemistry: to fight, flee, or totally disassociate from the current realities. This is how we naturally address any potential danger or trauma that we anticipate or have endured.
Yet, as faith teaches us, there are times when we must resist those tendencies to avoid dealing with the trauma in our lives. To not deal with the trauma is to continue to endure the pain of holding it all in, packing it down inside of our soul, and letting it continue to diminish our spirit. Not dealing with the trauma will ultimately affect not only our minds but our bodies and spirit.
This is where this time of year, with the Seasons of Advent and Christmas, that the Catholic Christian community centers us in 4 essential virtues: hope, joy, peace, and love. These seasons – Advent runs from November 28 through December 24, Christmas Season runs from December 25 through the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord on Sunday, January 9 – invite us into a time of reflection and fortification of these virtues in our lives. These virtues root us in all that we need to face the chaos of life head-on.
Hope is not the same as optimism. With optimism, we will see signs of positive change. With hope, there is a trust built into us, as people of deep faith, that God will get us through the crosses and chaos of life and ultimately lead us to resurrection, the small resurrections we experience after facing the various crosses that life can deal us, and our ultimate resurrection when the frailty of our physical lives takes us, and God is there to welcome us.
We live in a time where we are waiting for things to change, to become better. Hopeful waiting is our active expression of faith in a God who created us, loves us, encourages and challenges us, and accompanies us through the chaos. Our hopeful waiting is not a sitting still or standing on the sidelines to let life happen. Hopeful waiting mirrors what God does for us in how we accompany, love, encourage and compassionately challenge others as they navigate the chaos of life.
There is a beautiful piece of prose written by Julia Esquivel titled “Threatened with Resurrection” as she reflects on the constant fear of potential death at the hands of government forces in El Salvador seeking to extinguish the hopes of the poor for fairness and respect. In the final two verses, she invites us to ‘join us in this vigil,’ this hopeful waiting, and gives us in the final verse the formula for hopeful waiting:
Join us in this vigil and you will know what it is to dream!
Then you will know how marvelous it is to live threatened with Resurrection!To dream awake, to keep watch asleep, to live while dying, and to know ourselves already resurrected!
Written by Father Larry Dowling
Source:
Brethren Press: Threatened With Resurrection: Prayers and Poems from an Exiled Guatemalan; Julia Esquivel; English, Spanish, and Spanish Edition; March 1994
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Robin’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
First Inset Image Courtesy of Jim McDougall’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Second Inset Image Courtesy of Dennis Jarvis’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License