Where is our hope?

[Mark Dohle]

So where is our hope?​

You do not comprehend pain. You do not comprehend that through the love of God you need to accept pain and endure it. Every human being will experience it to a lesser or greater measure. But with peace in the soul and in a state of grace, hope exists: this is My Son, God, born of God. ​

A small section of Our Lady of Medjugorje’s message 2 Sept, 2017​

As a species, we need to ask “why”? It starts when we are very young, and the questioning can only get more intense as we age and hopefully mature. The most important questions are not ones we can answer, but those where our questioning seems to be always at the same place; we never get the response we are asking for, and there is no closure on that level. When talking about suffering, the questioning can become bitter leading to despair. Many can lose faith over this, seeking to understand our lives and what people have to endure.

The quote above will anger some and help others. Still, some readers will be mystified. There are moments in my life where I experience each of the above. For there seems to be, way too much suffering in this world. As humans we mull over the past, fear the future and often find the ‘now’ something, as it says above, to endure.

Some philosophies seek to help find answers. When a thinker concludes that because of suffering there cannot be a God or any kind of reason for our existence, is one way to take care of the problem. It is simply the way things are and any answer that we come up with that is different from one of atheism, is based on fantasy, a way to handle life and its absurdities. We live, have life experiences, and then we die….that’s it. I could live with that. However, as absurd as the idea of God can be, and the thought of a loving God even more absurd, yet is atheism any less absurd? For me, it is more absurd. It seems that we are always at a crossroads being asked to choose which way we will go.

Because I believe in a Universe that is filled with intelligence and information (the laws that run the universe), as well as a great beauty, it points to a ‘being’ that is in reality ‘unrestricted thinking’, or infinite mind (the Mind-of-Christ). So, if this is true then God will reveal himself to a creation that he found to be good and loves. I believe Jesus Christ is that revelation.

We treated that revelation (Jesus Christ), the same way that we abuse each other. He was hounded, betrayed, lied about (fake news), mocked, beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and then put to death in a most painful manner. What happened to him was as common as mud in his time, and not much different now. Yet there was a difference.

On the Cross, he forgave all, in his sufferings, He united himself to all of humanity, and when he died in such a horrible manner, we died with him. He died a total loser, his enemies smug in their victory, which is what always happens in this world. The good are trampled, enslaved, and killed, with no justice.

So where is our hope? Well, this loser, this outcaste, this lover of mankind who was betrayed, arose on the third day and began the transformation of the world. So, in our sufferings, we find our hope in Christ Jesus. I believe that all seekers of truth will one day bend their knees in great joy to this truth that is mocked by most today.

The mystery of Christ Jesus and what he did is not something that can find complete closure, sort of the like the problem with suffering and pain. Yet those who ponder this great deed. and pray about it, will find that slowly it comes more clear, yet it is always just out of reach…..so we continue the journey of growing in faith even in the midst of great suffering, pain, chaos, and loss.

We are called to pray, to love, to unite ourselves to Christ so that by grace we participate in his sufferings and resurrection, for we are the Body of Christ, and all of us are priest, partaking in his salvific will.

In that is our hope, not some magical thinking about God, for no one believes in “The Magic Man in the Sky”, but we seek to be transformed by grace into Jesus Christ.

Upon the Cross, you felt our fear,
you saw the void and fell back
asking that it be taken away,
yet you drank that chalice of suffering to its dregs
and in you your failure you overcame.

For you arose and we rise with you​

Br.MD​