Is Hope just a naive optimism?

                                                           

December 14, 2025

The theme of hope is found in different ways in all three readings of this Sunday.  In the second reading, we have James asking his readers who are waiting for the coming of the Lord, to have hope like the farmer who waits patiently for the coming of rain.  And in the first reading we have Isaiah telling his audience to hope when he tells them, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God….. He will come and save you.”. And in the Gospel reading we have the disciples of John coming to ask Jesus whether he is the Messiah that the Jews had long been hoping for.

But how do we hope when there is so much ‘going wrong’ in our world today? (see also How does one hold on to Hope). Pope Francis in his last encyclical (‘PILGRIMS  OF hope’) gives us an insight when he gives us the example of Mary as the exemplar of hope. He writes:  Hope finds its supreme witness in the Mother of God….. Like every mother, whenever Mary looked at her Son, she thought of his future. Surely she kept pondering in her heart the words spoken to her in the Temple by the elderly Simeon: “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Lk 2:34-35). At the foot of the cross, she witnessed the passion and death of Jesus, her innocent son. Overwhelmed with grief, she nonetheless renewed her “fiat”, never abandoning her hope and trust in God. 

And so it would seem that hope is not a feeling; it is a choice; it is an act of the will. So Mary chooses to offer her fiat to God. It is an act of her will - a choice that seems quite impossible when she sees all that is happening to her son.  As Francis writes, hope is ‘not a naive optimism but a gift of grace amid the realities of life’.

But then we can legitimately ask: Was Mary given a special grace from God that allowed her to continue to hope despite all that happened in her life, and in the life of her son? And if that is so, can we conclude that we ourselves cannot be expected to hold on to hope, to choose to hope, until we receive that kind of grace? 

But is grace a sort of a magical infusion from above, that transforms us like a drug which gives the athlete the strength to run faster, or jump higher etc.?   If that is the case, then isn’t God unjust in giving some people grace, and withholding it from others ?  Again, if that is the understanding of grace, then why would anybody be blamed, or praised, for what they do or do not do? - for it would all depend on whether they received grace or not?  

So what then is grace? Perhaps, a metaphor could help us understand grace. Imagine that each of us is like a rough diamond, where each of us has potential, has certain gifts, embedded within us. And God’s divine light of grace is always shining on this rough diamond that is each of us. However, we ourselves can  only shine/sparkle, if we spend our life journey, working assiduously to scrape out, cut out the ‘negative’ parts, and then continue over our lives to clean, polish etc. And each time we polish a little bit of ourselves, a little bit more of the light of grace can reflect from us, so that as Aristotle taught, we become what we do. In that manner, gradually, over time, we develop the ‘grace’ to be able to reflect the divine, like a diamond reflects light.  

The paradox is that though grace is ultimately a gift, yet it is a gift that we must work towards. So Mary chooses to continue to say yes to God in the face of many many difficulties. And each time Mary says yes, she grows a little more in being able to choose to hope. And so, Mary’s ability to hope is also a choice. There is then no partiality in God’s gift of grace, but there is a difference in how we use and reflect that grace, which in turns leads into a spiral upwards towards or downwards away from grace and hope.  

One of my favourite films, The Man of La Mancha (based on the character of Don Quixote, created by the novelist Cervantes), offers us a good example of what it means to choose hope.  In the film there is a prostitute, Aldonza, who is completely cynical about men, and about what men want from women like her.  But Don Quixote, the protagonist, still believes in  her, hopes for her. Finally, with his death, which he has to face because of his mad insistence on continuing to choose to  believe in the goodness that is deeply embedded in her and in all human beings, he is able to instil in her the ability to have hope for herself. Today, I leave you with the lyrics of a song from that film which for me encapsulates what it means to hope:

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar,

To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest, to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far

To fight for the right

Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell

for a heavenly cause,

 

And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star. 

First Reading:  isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and shouting.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. 

Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are of a fearful heart,  “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened;
then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool
    and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp;
    the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8 A highway shall be there,
    and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,
    but it shall be for God’s people;

    no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.
9 No lion shall be there,
    nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
    but the redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;  they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

 Second Reading: James 5:  7-10

Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.  You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.  Brothers and sisters, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Gospel:  Mathew 11: 2-11

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”  Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:  the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.  And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind?  What, then, did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.  What, then, did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’  “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist, yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he’.