Readings (Year C):
Jeremiah 17:5-8
Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 & 6
1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20
Luke 6:17, 20-26
Reflection: Like a tree planted near running water
Hope is a word I use a lot, as I am a person of many hopes. I hope I won’t hit traffic on my morning commute. I hope my husband remembers to pick up my prescription on the way home from work. Like many Americans, I hope the price of eggs goes down. But these are small hopes. I also have bigger ones. I hope that my family stays safe and sane amidst our national chaos. I hope that my friend with cancer recovers. I hope for an end of the war between Ukraine and Russia. And why not be generous and wide-ranging with my hopes? Hope is a virtue, right?
It was a bit of a surprise to me to find out that St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa says, “not necessarily.” He says the way that I’ve been using the word “hope” is really just a synonym for the word “want.” I want not to hit traffic. I want eggs to be cheaper. I want war to go away. And that is all fine so long as what we want is good, but it doesn’t make for virtue. Thomas says hope is a virtue only when what we are talking about as the object of our hope is not traffic or eggs, but God—life with God, the reign of God.
This is the kind of hope our readings today talk about. In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah says, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord.” His words are echoed in the refrain for the responsorial psalm: “Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.”
The scriptures are not telling us we should simply ask God for whatever we want and trust God will make it happen. No, what today’s scriptures emphasize is that God’s smile rests upon those whose desire is for God, whose longing is for life with God. God promises that this desire will always be satisfied. The price of eggs may skyrocket. My husband may forget my prescription. Harder yet, my friend may die; war may go on. Chaos in my country may continue. But in the middle of all the mess that makes for a human life on this planet, I am assured I can confidently hope in God if my hope is for a life with God. A life with God is always possible, no matter what else is going on. God is always present whatever is happening.
Interestingly, both the prophet Jeremiah and the psalmist offer us the same image of what life looks like when the object of one’s hope is God. It is like being a tree planted next to a stream. Droughts will come. Hot winds will blow. But one’s roots remain in contact with fresh, flowing water, and—even in the harshness of the surrounding environment—one can continue to bear fruit.
In our lives, many bad things have happened and are happening. Many of our hopes have been crushed like dropped eggs on the asphalt of the grocery store parking lot. But we can rest assured there is nothing that can happen that will take away the possibility of a life with God. Nothing that can stop our lives from bearing fruit whatever the circumstances.
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