Is There Any Reason to Hope? 

There was another shooting in a church last Sunday.  This time it was a Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) in Michigan.  Current reports indicate the shooter hated Mormons.  We need to stop the hate.  There is too much hate.  It does us no good. 

Last week at the United Nations, Netanyahu, leader of Israel, reaffirmed his plans to wipe out Hamas. (Thankfully, yesterday a new peace deal was announced by Israel and the U.S. was announced.  There is no word yet on whether Hamas will accept it.)  In a separate report, Trump said Putin has let him down.  There is too much hate and negativity. 

The same day Charlie Kirk was shot, there was a shooting at a high school in Colorado.  Negative politics have put the Charlie Kirk story was out in front of the high school shooting.  Please don’t get me wrong.  The shooting of Charlie Kirk was wrong, pure and simple.  I can’t comment on the Colorado high school shooting because I haven’t seen much follow-up on it to understand why it happened.  No matter the why, no mass shooting is good. 

The political rhetoric continues as our federal government faces a budget deadline tonight.  If a deal is not made before then, there could be a government shutdown.  How sad it is that the politics continue despite the negative effects a shutdown could bring. 

On Sunday, at the Masses I presided at, we sang, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.”  The words from the first verse, “I am tired, I am weak, I am worn, through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light” (composed by Thomas Dorsey, 1932) speak of how I feel about what is going on in the world.   

In the midst of the hatred and negativity, in this jubilee year of hope, is there any reason to hope? 

Of course there is! 

We do not fight the battle against evil alone!  As I said in my homily yesterday, we have the archangels, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael to help us.   

Even better than the archangels, we have God!  Many people have abandoned God.  God has not abandoned us (see 2 Timothy 2:11-15)!  Thanks be to God! 

We may not understand is going on in the world but we can pray.  Given that we do not understand what is going on, we might think we do not know what to pray for.  God provides.  Here Paul writes, “In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings” (Romans 8:26). 

Like Job, we are not God.  We are not going to understand everything.  Yet, “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). 

In 1 Peter 3:15, we read, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” 

When politicians run for office, they like to say if we want to hope for a better future, we need to elect them and let them take care of the problem.  How often is our hope disappointed when it is rooted in human promises?  In Romans 5:5, Paul speaks of a hope that does not disappoint.  It is the hope that we have in Jesus, “Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8). 

The song, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” says, “through the storm.”  In Matthew 14:22-33, the disciples faced a terrible storm.  Jesus came to them in the storm.  It was a terrible storm, yet Jesus was walking on water.  When Peter placed his trust in Jesus, Peter walked on water with Jesus.  When Peter thought in human terms, he sank.  Our hope lies in God, not in man and “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31)? 

Civilizations fall when they turn from God.  This is what happened when the Israelites did not listen to prophets like Amos (see first reading last Sunday).  When civilizations return to God, everything gets better. 

When people cry out to God, He hears our cry. 

The preface to the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass starts with, “The Lord be with you, And with your spirit.  Lift up your hearts.  We lift them up to the Lord.”  We need to lift our hearts up to the Lord. 

Key to lifting up our hearts to the Lord, is living the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12a).  We need to be “poor in spirit” as we lift our hearts to the Lord so that we may receive the Kingdom of Heaven.  When we allow our hearts to mourn, we receive the comfort of the Lord.  Do we not mourn the many deaths from shootings and war?  We need to “hunger and thirst for righteousness.”     

The hatred we see in the world, the destruction, the rhetoric, and the shootings will only stop when we stop seeking what we want and give our lives over to God. 

When a person comes to inquire about an annulment, I encourage them to admit not just the faults of their spouse but to consider their own faults in what happened.  When one seeks a legal divorce, one might want to put the blame on the other person.  An annulment is not about blame.  An annulment is to understand what was lacking in the marriage so that we can allow God to bring healing to what was weak. 

Marriage is meant to be a sign of God’s love and relationship with us.  Our relationship with God is broken.  One doesn’t have to look far to find ways to blame others for this, and they may be right.  However, if you want to do your part to make things better, don’t put all the blame on others.  Ask God to show you where you are lacking in your own life and allow him to remove and heal your sins and then we can help in doing the same in others (see Matthew 7:1-5). 

Peace, 

 Fr. Jeff