Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
In my Easter homily I spoke about HOPE, Holy Optimism Pervading Everything. This is how God looks at the world, and indeed at each of us. Applying this lens to our own world view is both liberating and empowering, bringing us closer to our loving God, and making us better able to do His will and accomplish His work. St. Peter puts forth a challenging summons in today’s second reading, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” (1 Peter 3:16).
In the first days of our Church, as is still true today, there were many factors that might cause one to lose hope. Our world is pained with suffering, violence, and oppression. We are let down by political systems, broken promises, fractured relationships, and other entities not of God. While it may feel like a there are a host of reasons to be pessimistic, God approaches our broken world with Holy Optimism.
Holy Optimism does not dismiss the reality of challenges, rather it pervades these challenges with God’s belief in our promise. The history of our salvation is, in a way ,the story of God’s relentless love for humankind, a true manifestation of Holy Optimism. Humankind fails, we individually fail, but still God loves us and believes in us. God corrects and guides us out of His love, so that we may try again to achieve the wholeness and happiness that God wants for us.
When we allow Holy Optimism to pervade out our lives and our attitude, we can see far more reasons for hope than for despair. One such can be found in today’s Gospel – Jesus’ promise of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whose ongoing presence in our lives and in our world is an agent for Holy Optimism. We can hope in the face of any challenge because we know we are never abandoned, never orphaned, never cut off from God’s love.
The world may try to rob us of hope, society may focus on the sensationally negative, but when we have HOPE, we not only improve our own state of mind, our own being, we have the ability to make real change – optimistic, faith-filled, positive change – in our world.
I wish you and your loved ones continued Easter blessings of good health, true peace, and great HOPE,