The Great Gift Of Hope
“The great gift of Easter is hope.” ~ Basil Hume
It’s hard to live without hope. Studies were done through the years precisely on that concept. When someone is deprived of hope, that person becomes listless, depressed, and many times even suicidal. The human spirit needs hope or there doesn’t seem to be any reason to continue. For that matter, it is not only the human spirit that needs hope. Animals who perceive no hope, whose options are taken from them, react the same way as people do. Hope is essential to all living things.
We have all had listless spirits in our lives. There have been times when we felt down. I’m talking really down. Like lower than the lows we had ever felt. It might have been because of the death of a loved one, the breakup of a marriage, or the loss of a friendship. At those times, we had a hard time focusing upon our next steps. It was hard to think clearly. None of the options facing us felt right.
That is what happens to a spirit that has lost hope. However, once hope is restored, joy arrives. Someone who had no hope but who finds it again changes radically from one day to the next. One day the person might have been unkempt and moody. The next day the person is dressed, clean, smiling, and laughing. Hope is in the person’s heart again and things are looking up.
Easter gives all of us hope. When we reflect upon where we were — lost in sin — and where we are — freed from the shackles of sin and death — we feel great joy welling up inside of us. That joy overflows into the shouts of Alleluia that we hear daily at Mass. Each day this week is another day of the resurrection story and the hope that it brings.
Christ indeed is risen from the dead. Alleluia, alleluia!
FAITH ACTION: Reflect upon the hope of resurrection won for you by Christ Jesus and thank Him for so great a gift.