How does one hold onto Hope?

December 17, 2023

There is something common that we find in the prophet Isaiah, from whose writings we have today’s first reading, and in Paul the Apostle from whose letter to the Thessalonians we have today’s second reading, and finally in  John the Baptist who is referred to in today’s Gospel. If we look at their writings/sayings and their lives, we can see that none of them ‘pretends’  that they have done nothing, unlike those who sometimes exhibit a false humility.  And yet I would say that they were truly humble.

What about Jesus? When we hear his statement: “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart” we cannot help but feel it is quite an arrogant statement. Or again, when he begins his public mission and starts being known for his miracles, he comes to visit Nazareth. There in the local synagogue, he is given an opportunity to read the Scripture. And whether by chance or choice, Jesus opens the Scripture and reads the very passage that we find in today’s first reading:  ”The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”.  And after reading this passage, which has subsequently been termed Jesus’ mission manifesto, Jesus quietly says: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”.  He is, in effect, saying that I have come to fulfil this prophecy of Isaiah, which was a prophecy that was understood by the Jews to identify the coming of the Messiah. That was a powerful and even arrogant claim, and it is no wonder that, as the Gospel of Luke proceeds to tell us, his own townspeople, who know him from his childhood, are so angry with him that they are ready to throw him off a cliff; and it is in this context that Jesus says those much quoted words, “A prophet is never recognised in his own country”. Yet, I would consider him humble

Why do I say this?  I would suggest that humility does not mean denying what one has done, but it is to know that what one has accomplished is only a small cog in the larger plan to change things.  After all Isaiah, Paul and John the Baptist, while acknowledging their own important and God-given role, may have considered themselves as failures. John the Baptist’s preaching career was suddenly cut short by Herod. Paul himself was crucified while he was at the height of his ministry.  And even though we apply Isaiah’s words: “He was oppressed and afflicted,  yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter” (Is. 53:7) to Jesus, those words  probably reflected  his own sufferings. So Isaiah too was not a great success.  And as we prepare for the birth of a child whose birth was apparently so important that it was announced to the shepherds and the Magi and seemed to threaten King Herod,  we must remember  that to Jesus himself, it may have appeared that his life was a failure. For at the end of three years of ministry, all his close disciples run away, one betrays him and his closest friend denies him. Who then will carry on his message?  One can feel this deep pain and disappointment in his sad complaint to his disciples: Could you not keep awake one hour to be with me? (Mathew 26:40)  And while Jesus surely started with much enthusiasm, energy and hope, and experienced the adulation of crowds thronging around him, what did he mean when he cries out on the cross: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.  Even his disciples felt he had failed. And so we have for example the two disciples running away to Emmaus confessing their dejection: “we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21).  And so to many, it would seem that Jesus’ life, like glass, seems to have shattered into a myriad shards when he was hung on the cross.

So what gave them the courage and hope to continue?  I would suggest that it was humility that gave Isaiah, Paul, John the Baptist and Jesus the hope and strength to continue.  Their humility can perhaps be expressed in Paul’s words to the newly converted Corinthians:  “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” (1Cor 3:6-7).  Isaiah, too, lived out his life trusting that God was making use of him to bring Israel back to repentance. John the Baptist, while acknowledging his own important role, has no problem in admitting that he was not the One whom the Jews were waiting for.   So Jesus’ statement claiming that the scripture was fulfilled in himself, though arrogant sounding, was only stating what he believed was God’s plan for him, and that he himself was part of God’s larger plan for Israel.

The opposite of humility is hubris or pride.  And this is found in the individual who somehow believes that much can be accomplished by him or her alone, and that if great success is achieved, it is primarily or wholly because of him/her. No general ever really won a war alone; but of course when the war is won, most generals think it was won primarily because of them. Very few generals acknowledge that they were a small though important cog in the machine of war.  This hubris can also  be found exemplified in powerful creative works like Oedipus Rex, Frankenstein, and All the King’s Men, where hubris is the tragic flaw that leads to the hero’s downfall.

We, too, sometimes unknowingly exhibit a small kind of hubris. For example, we sometimes experience a diminishing of hope, almost a sense of despair, when we try to carry out the essence of Jesus’ manifesto, namely to set people free from some oppression or other, or even when we try so hard to overcome some sadness or evil in our own lives.  Sometimes it all seems so futile, or never-ending.  I have often asked myself the question: Have I made any difference to the world around me?  Am I making any difference through whatever efforts I make?  Am I truly being Christian?

And perhaps what unconsciously lies at the root of this diminishing of hope, or self-questioning, is that we get sucked into believing that it is our own efforts that bring about real change, and fail to recognise that we are only a small part of a larger effort.  Maybe the belief that we, in whatever efforts we make, are the primary agents of change in our circles of influence, is our hubris. We begin to believe that WE, or OUR EFFORTS make the change, - and so when we experience success or failure, we are elated or depressed because we  consider it a personal success or failure.  

Letting go of this ‘hidden’ hubris is extremely difficult, for our ego is so attached to what we do, that it craves self-affirmation which comes in the form of success. And when we do not experience this, we lose hope. True humility perhaps is that virtue which will not only allow us to acknowledge the value of what we do, but also acknowledge  that we work within a larger plan, -  and for religious people, within God’s larger plan and that we do what we do with God’s strength and not just our own.

And so perhaps the hope of Christmas, of the Jesus story, is that through all of this, as we look at our history over time and space, we seem to have moved in the figure of a dance.  For when we look at that baby Jesus, who died on the cross in a shameful death, we experience the HOPE that every Christmas brings us, for we remember that the world changed so much because of him, that even such a mundane thing as the way to count the years of human history uses his birth year as the pivotal event from where to count, so that we speak of the years Before Christ (BC)  and Anno Domini  (AD) or the Year of the Lord).  And we see that we have moved in the figure of a dance, even when we look at our contemporary world, - we see the increasing freedoms that women or people of coloured skin enjoy, the willingness, at least in theory to accept that ALL human beings have equal human rights, the rise of the value of democracy (even when it sometimes leads to undemocratic and fascist leaders), and so much else, that are all huge steps on our human pilgrimage.  For all this, and much more, would have been a pipe-dream even just a hundred years ago. Many lives have been shattered to reach where we are today, but their shattered glass of their lives have made our lives sparkle a little more than before.   

In short then, humility leads us to hope. Humility is asking us to always remember that we ARE important, but perhaps not THAT important as we would like to believe. And our hope lies in the realisation that we are not obligated to complete the work, but without us the work will not be completed.

First Reading: Isaiah 61: 1-2a, 10-11

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has annointed me;

he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,

to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and release to the prisoners;

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God;

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,

he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,

so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

 

Second Reading: First Thessalonians 5: 16-24

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  Do not quench the Spirit.  Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.

Gospel: John 1: 6-8, 19-28

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”  He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,  “Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know,  the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.”  This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.