An Active, Not Passive, Hope

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

AS we are in this Jubilee Year of Hope, we need to be clarified about the true character of this particular gift from God which we have to duly receive and act on, making it an abiding virtue in us. Given our condition of pilgrim here on earth, we should make sure that we are always on the move toward our ultimate, spiritual and supernatural goal.

Hope should never be understood simply as total dependence on God’s omnipotent and merciful providence without us doing our own part. Hope demands that while we depend on God for everything, we should also do our part of the bargain, and should, in fact, do it to the limit.

Yes, everything depends on God, but everything also depends on us. It’s a 100%-100% proposition, though our efforts and power definitely would not match those of God. Let’s remember that as God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature, we need to try our best to channel in our life God’s tremendous care and love for us. We just cannot be sitting pretty, waiting for things to happen under God’s powers.

There’s always need for us to assume the very mind and heart of God as shown to us by Christ and made ever effective through the Holy Spirit. And the mission of Christ, who is our redeemer, should also be our mission.

Thus, we need to always take the initiative to reach out to others, especially those who are, in spiritual terms, lost. We should not just be contented with knowing what is right and wrong as shown to us by our Christian faith, nor with simply proclaiming them. Such attitude toward our Christian faith can only lead us to be judgmental.

We have to actively participate in the mission of Christ which is that of human redemption, starting with our own selves and radiating gradually and continually to the others, as far as we can. We should be most interested in how to save souls, rather than just knowing who are right and wrong, good and not good in their spiritual lives.

The gift and the virtue of hope involves a very dynamic process. Yes, while we have to be accepting of certain conditions over which we have no control, we also need to continually find ways of how we can grow in our spiritual life and help others to also grow in theirs.

In this regard, we have to take the initiative to give special attention to the things that we ought to have and which we do not have yet. And the same attention should also be given to others who may appear precisely to be the lost sheep.

For this, we should expose ourselves to the different ways people are thinking and behaving, trying to fathom the reason or causes for such way of life. We should avoid just dealing with our own kind. Like the Good Shepherd, we have to look after the lost sheep which, in the context of today’s world, can be the majority of the population.

We should not be afraid of the tremendous effort and sacrifices this would involve. But to do this, we really need to be truly united with Christ who in the end is the only one who knows how to understand everyone in all the differences and conflicts we can find ourselves in.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com