A REASON
FOR YOUR HOPE

• INTRODUCTION
  
  The title of my homily is, “A Reason for Your Hope.”
  
  In today’s second reading, I spotted the words, “A reason for your hope.”
  
  We have these two other readings, but I want to stay with that basic theme: A Reason for Your Hope.
  
  I found that challenging and intriguing: Don’t just tell me you have hope; give me the reasons why you have hope?
  
  REASONS WHY THIS QUESTION MIGHT HAVE HIT ME
  
  Maybe it was because last Wednesday, I was at Mass with our high school kids on a 4 day retreat at the Jesuit Retreat House down in Faulkner Maryland. One of the Jesuits on the staff there asked to preach and be the main celebrant at that Wednesday Mass. I gladly said, “Yes” – because I always think it’s good for people to hear a new - and a different voice. They heard enough of me. During his homily, Father Frank Kaminski, S.J. paused, went to the altar and then picked up a pamphlet. Holding it up and pointing to it as a prop, he said it was Benedict XVI’s encyclical on Hope (“Spe Salvi”).
  
  He was connecting and describing Pope Benedict’s visit to the United States – and Washington and New York and television – as a journey of hope. It hit me that Pope Benedict XVI might want and hope that his message and legacy to be that he is a pope that gives hope. Pope Hope.
  
  It might have also have hit me because this theme of “Hope” can be spin as well as serious – a word tossed out like a food wrapper in political campaigning every two and four years – wrapping the message, “Vote for me!”
  
  Hope.
  
  SECOND READING
  
  The Second Reading begins this way: “Beloved: Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.” Then it says, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence….”
  
  Interesting. Give a reason for your hope.
  
  Like everyone I have lots of hopes – but as for the reason for my hopes, I don’t think I have taken the time to put my motivation into words for myself.
  
  PART ONE: LOTS OF HOPES
  
  Let me first present some hopes and then in Part Two of this sermon, let’s be challenged by coming up with the reasons for our hopes.
  
  Thinking about what I hear people hoping for, here are some situations where people hope:
  + Someone has cancer. There is a hope for recovery.
  + The team is down by 1 point and there are only 28 seconds left. The team and fans that are behind are hoping someone steps up.
  + Someone is one of the three finalists to get a great job or promotion.
  I’m struggling with a deep sin and I find it hard to change, to let go, to wake up – and I hope I can – but it’s so difficult.
  + Our kid is trying to get into a certain college and we haven’t heard “Yes” or “No” yet. We’re hoping.
  + We make a turn in the road and traffic is backed up big time and we have 25 minutes to get to the place we’re going. Uh oh! We hope traffic opens up.
  + We’re dying and we begin wondering if there is anything after this…. Then we make an act of hope.

If we listen to our inner and outer conversations and jot down every time the word “hope” is used in just one day, would it be in the hundreds or thousands? I hope. I hope. I hope. I hope. I hope. Hope. Hope. Hope. Hope. Hope. Hope. Hope. Hope. Hope. Hope.

• I hope she answers the phone.
• I hope someone is home.
• I hope it doesn’t rain.
• I hope it does rain.
• I hope I get a parking spot.
• I hope the sermon is short.
• I hope the line is short.
• I hope our team football team gets Jake Long or Chris Long.
• I hope we get a table near the window.
• I hope he gets the message.
• I hope this marriage works.
• I hope I didn’t hurt her.
• I hope he likes meatloaf.
• I hope he picks up the bill at the restaurant.
• I hope the price of gas stops at $3.60 and starts going down.
• I hope the war in Iraq ends.
• I hope so and so gets home alive.
  

Life is filled with: Hope. Cope. Wishful thinking. Expectations. False hopes. True hopes. Manipulation. Promises. Broken Promises. False advertising. Hope. Hope. Hope. Don’t be a dope? Be realistic. Hope. Hope. Hope. Don’t give up. Are you crazy? There’s no way that’s going to happen. Well, I keep hoping. Hope. Hope. Hope.

OPTIMISTS AND PESSIMISTS

Do optimists say “hope” more than pessimists? I don’t know. I haven’t counted. On first thought, “Yes.” But I don’t know. I have to think about that. I would think so, but I’m not sure.

Do optimists say “hope”, when pessimists say, “nope”?

Probably.

Or, is it, an all depends?

PART TWO: REASONS FOR OUR HOPE

The title of this homily is, “A Reason for Your Hope.”

Every Saturday I have a ritual – no matter how busy Saturdays can be – of hoping to grab 10 minutes to read a specific section of The New York Times. We all have our daily, interesting rituals. On Monday’s I look for Metropolitan Diary in The New York Times. On Sunday’s I look for “Week in Review”. On the other days I look at the Sports Section first. So yesterday, Saturday (April 26, 2008), I looked for the “Beliefs” column with the hope it would gives me a tiny bit of enlightenment. Yesterday the article was entitled, “Pope Benedict and the Lasting Impact of His U.S. Trip.” The article was by Peter Steinfels – who often has the Saturday belief article or column.

Reading the title, I wondered what his take on the Pope’s trip was. It’s a bit early for hindsight, but maybe he’d give a good insight. That was my hope, because there were so many articles and press and television reports about the trip.

The article said that Pope Benedict’s message was twofold: God and Church. Then he said that God is by far his primary message. Is God the Foundation of our life? That was his message for the U.S. – at the two ballparks, - the new Washington Nationals Park in Washington D.C. and the Yankees’ Stadium (Home of the dreadful Yankees) in N.Y, at the U.N., and in his other speeches and actions. It has been the message he’s been pushing for Europe and the world.

Peter Steinfels says that the Pope didn’t get into the nuts and bolts of Church stuff (translation for me: the iddy biddy, “complainy” stuff, the “whiny” Letters to the Editor kind of stuff.) No, Benedict’s stress was God is the foundation – not stuff. Yes, he tried to give comfort and hope to those who were abused – that we will do our best not to let that happen again.

God was his message. Is God in our life? Is God the foundation of our life? Is God our hope?

What I read was that Peter Steinfels thought that Pope Benedict’s main question and main hope is that people will look at the place of God in their life. Is God their foundation?

As I read that I realized that the answer to the question: “What is the reason for our hope?”, was not complicated. It is very simple: God.

For the Christian we might say, “Christ” – as well as the Father and the Holy Spirit – the Trinity – as we hear in today’s gospel.

But Benedict was addressing the world, so he used the term, “God”.

GOD IS THE REASON

If someone asks us the reason for our hope, do we simply say “God” gently and with reverence, as it says to do in today’s second reading from the first pope, Peter?

Yes. God.

Not bad. Simple. Easy – but a profound answer. A three letter, one word, answer, to a profound question. “God!”

Why do we come to church each Sunday? God. We know we can’t go it alone. We need God?

So we come here to church when a kid is born, when that kid is getting married, when that person dies. We’ve all heard the funny comment that people come to church when they are hatched, matched and dispatched. For starters that’s a true answer.

Then there are people who come to church more than those three moments. There are Easter and Christmas Catholics, Palm Sunday and Ash Wednesday Catholics, some Sunday Catholics and Every Sunday Catholics. They all come because of some degree of hope in God.

CONCLUSION

So, no matter who we are, with reverence, without judgment, we simply say, the answer to the reason for hope is God.

Oh?