Articles
Hope is the fundamental message in this jubilee year. Literally speaking, hope can be equated to the desire that things may change for the better. It is like a wish or expectation. However, we cannot reduce hope to just this literal meaning. There is something more than that. Hope is one of the three theological virtues. This means that just like the theological virtues of love and faith, hope is ordered towards God and guides the faithful towards God.
Thus, what hope makes us to do must be in a way godly, divine. Still, on being a theological virtue, hope goes along with faith and love. There is faith in hope. Hope keeps one focused when things seem to go wrong; it propels fortitude. There is love in hope. When a word of hope is conveyed to someone, it also reveals love. According to the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church (CCC…), these three theological virtues form a basis for the Christian moral life and guide the faithful towards understanding and communion with God.
The jubilee year that we are celebrating comes coincidentally at a time when the world needs hope; hope that things may change for the better and hope that will make us draw closer to God. Our hope in Christ the saviour of humanity and model of life, is not in vain. Just like the people of Israel hoped for the messiah, the world must burn ardently with similar hope today.
We must hope for the termination of wars that claim innocent and vulnerable lives of children, hope for a better world where there is equality and hope for a world where we do not build walls to deter one another but bridges to reach out to each other. There is a lot that the jubilee year of hope reawakens in us. The most essential thing is that our hope in God will bring the change that we desire. It is a time to return to the source of it all.
Christ, the missionary of the Father, the Hope of humanity
“Missionaries of hope” is the theme of this year’s papal message for the missionary month of October. The message reawakens in us our role as missionaries in bringing the message of hope to the world. Christians are all missionaries by virtue of baptism.
The missionary identity is derived from Christ himself, the missionary of the Father. The mission of Christ was to bring salvation, to restore hope to a people who were on the verge of losing it. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives” Luke 4:18. With these words, Jesus began his ministry. The proclamation of the kingdom of God forms the basis of all his ministry.
The message of Christ brought hope to all who listened to him. It brought hope to those who lived in misery and affliction. He healed the sick, he made the crippled walk and he fed the hungry. Those who were in hope-less situation found hope. It is from this hope Christ brought that we derive our own hope and are called to be missionaries of hope. “Spes non confundit”- hope does not delude, asserted the late Pope Francis. Indeed, it doesn’t, and those who hope are never deluded. When we look into detail, the message of the Holy Father, three crucial points relevant in the revival of hope emerge.
Firstly, we are builders of hope rooted in the footsteps of Christ. Hope is the heart of the Christian mission. The missionary of hope derives his hope from following Christ and his life. Our gaze on Christ shapes our minds and gives us the courage to move on. Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever and so must our hope be, never changing, never wavering. In such a way, like Christ who restored the hope of the needy and commended all to God, joy and pain, strength and weakness, we too become divine missionaries of hope to the world.
Christ transmitted to the disciples the mission of hope through numerous acts of kindness. Being rooted in Christ requires of us, as present-day disciples, a constant union with him. His ways must pervade our ways. We must become the alter Christi to one another by offering a second chance to whoever seeks his compassionate hand that he habitually extended to sinners, to the desperate.
Christians as bearers of hope. This calls upon all to never give up, even in the most tormenting moments. We keep our eyes fixed on Christ, the reason for our faith and our hope. It is our fundamental vocation to participate in the church’s missionary activity.
There is a call of solidarity embedded in hope; solidarity with the marginalized and the suffering. The hope that we bear is nourished by prayer, the sacraments, and fraternal communion. The Holy Father describes prayer as the “primary missionary activity,” which keeps the spark of hope that we bear alive and allows it to grow into a great fire. Prayer then becomes indispensable in fanning the flame of hope in us.
Renewing the mission of hope. The hope that we bear needs constant renewal. This entails a constant and or consistent universal call to mission. As generations come and go, the baton of hope is passed from one generation to the next. Consequently, the mission to spread hope becomes constant and on-going. It never ceases. Regardless of age, regardless of prevailing circumstances, we are called to participate actively in the evangelizing mission of the Church through life witness, prayer, solidarity, sacrifice and generosity.
St Daniel Comboni, a missionary model of hope
St. Daniel Comboni, whose feast day, just like that of the patroness of the missions, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, occurs on 10th October, gives through his life and mission a vivid example of a missionary as a carrier or bearer of hope for the people to whom he is sent. His incredible infancy story, being the only child of his parents, expresses the audacity to give all for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. St Daniel Comboni never stopped thinking of spreading the gospel in Africa, leading him to daringly say “Africa or death.
That was his dream, that was his hope. For Comboni, to be a missionary of hope entailed sharing in the life of the people and making a common cause with them. In other words, living in solidarity. He gave a thrilling homily at his inauguration as the bishop of central Africa. He said “…. I come among you, never again to cease to be yours. Your joy will be my joy, your sorrow will be my sorrow, I will make a common cause with you, and the happiest day of my life will be when I’ll give up my life for you.” We see in Comboni that hope does not abandon the cause for which it dares. In fact, it does not delude. To be a missionary of hope means to prevail in all situations, joy or sorrow, sunshine or rain.
Comboni remained convinced of his hope even amidst affliction, not giving up. The missionary under the light of Comboni is called to be that ray of hope for the people. Hope is like the lighthouse that the sailor must keep his eyes on in order to arrive at the other side of the ocean. To make a common cause with those who are suffering calls for not just empathy or sympathy but rather compassion that makes the situation of others not their own but rather a common struggle, a shared venture to be faced together. Our hope must never die.
By Fr. Nicholas Onyait MCCJ
