Herald hope for people who are drowning in hopelessness.
‘O ur joy comes from knowing that we can live on tomorrow’s joy today.” And “hope is not dead; hope is alive and it embraces our lives forever.”
Maria Montserrat — we call her “Montse” — Alvarado, president of EWTN (a global Catholic television network) was speaking to the women of the Knights of Columbus, who were gathered in Washington, D.C., for the annual convention of the Catholic fraternal organization. The lunch was attended mostly by the wives of leaders in the Knights, women who are community — and family — leaders in their own right, albeit usually without the colorful titles the Knights are known for.
Montse also quoted Saint Augustine on his mother, Saint Monica. Her son’s life was a moral disaster. It was an excruciating cross for her to bear. But she prayed. She prayed with every bit of energy and love she could muster. “You did not despise her tears when they poured down and watered the ground beneath her eyes wherever she prayed,” Augustine wrote in reflective prayer in his Confessions, after his conversion — the fruit of Monica’s hard-fought dedication to hope.
Women who live real Christian hope “inspire,” Alvarado says, because of the trust they have in God and His promises. Her idea that we can live on tomorrow’s joy today is based on the conviction that “tomorrow’s joy is our life in Heaven, and we can borrow small doses of that in our everyday lives to fuel our hope.” Christian faith gives us confidence that the people we most love don’t die but have another life, the eternal life they were meant for. And Catholics insist that they — and an army of saints — are working for us, nudging and putting in a good word to God on our behalf, as we beg him for all sorts of miracles.
The day before Alvarado spoke, Patrick Kelly, the head of the Knights, delivered his annual report. It was a jubilee of hope in the Catholic Church. The theme of the Knights’ gathering this summer was “Heralds of Hope,” namely, anything that can encourage living. Kelly quoted Pope Francis: “The infinitely great has made himself tiny; divine light has shone amid the darkness of our world; the glory of heaven has appeared on earth. And how? As a little child.” Francis said that “if God can visit us even when our hearts seem like a lowly manger,” we can firmly and fervently be sure that hope is very much alive.
As everyone who spoke shared instances of charity and resilience from home and abroad (Nigeria, Ukraine — some intense examples), my mind was on the D.C. Metro. When Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States in 2008, hope was in the air we were breathing. I saw him at the White House and was just yards away from him and President George W. Bush, who was as giddy as a schoolboy on a day off from classes. The pope clearly represented hope to W. He did not even have to speak, and it was obvious. Meanwhile, on area buses and trains, there were quotes from Pope Benedict about how those of us with Christian hope ought to live: differently. It was an instruction and a challenge. If we are white-knuckling through life, wallowing in our misery, numbing the pain — as many of us do — then we are missing the hope.
Alvarado wouldn’t be president of a Catholic news network, offering practical advice about hope to leaders from around the country, if it weren’t for EWTN’s founder, Mother Angelica. The woman was hope on steroids. When I met her in 2000, I entered the cloistered visiting area in her monastery, and I think it was a vestibule to Heaven. She said on another occasion, talking about hope, that it does not lie. We sometimes think that little white lies might bring hope — “That dress is beautiful. . . .” No, it’s the real stuff that helps us live in hope. And it is for everyone.
By heralding hope, we begin again, no matter the stupid, evil, reckless, thoughtless, forgetful, embarrassing things we’ve done. Whatever happens, we can’t kill hope. Despair is the inability to believe this — the Devil works overtime on the roadblocks. Choose hope. Embrace others with hope. Hope will overcome the oppression of distraction, so that we can live that tomorrow’s joy right now and with every breath of our earthly lives.
This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.