Recently in to honor Martin Luther King, my wife and I watched his entire “I have a dream” speech. As he spoke of the realities of police brutality and other forms of discrimination, I found myself wondering whether we have made any progress since that speech 60 years ago.

As a society, we have become more divided. That division has raised the possibility that a man who jokes about being a dictator may become our next president. Intelligent dialogue over difficult issues such as immigration has been replaced by politicians spending money on walls and flotation devices. We watch helplessly as gun violence escalates to the point where mass shootings happen weekly as it becomes easier to purchase assault weapons. And we hear rumblings of a Catholic Right Wing intent upon undoing the gains of Vatican II. Many of us have become afraid and angry. Some politicians have tapped into that fear and anger to their own advantage.

Network is a prophetic film from the 1970s. Here is a famous scene where the newscaster Howard Beal, in the midst of a mental breakdown, taps into that cultural fear and anger. As you watch this scene, how far removed is it really from today’s political landscape?

So, just as Howard Beal suggests, the temptation for many of us is to withdraw and be left alone. Such a desire even impacts our religious practices. Many at Church don’t want to be reminded of the spiritual challenges of the day even though Christ’s message is intended to make us uncomfortable. When we attend Mass, many of us don’t want to hear Jesus’ challenges about the poor. We don’t want to be reminded that He did not see violence as a solution to problems. We don’t want to hear how His words impact our beliefs about gun control.

The counterpoint to all this is hope. Of faith, hope, and charity, we don’t hear as much about hope. Hope is an attitude as well as an emotion that says such things as :

I can heal.

We can survive.

The good people will win in the end.

And, if hope is grounded in faith, then hope says the God of one’s understanding will prevail.

In my work as a psychotherapist, I believed that part of my task was to help each person find a hope but that was real. For example, when I dealt with AIDS patients in the days before there was a medicine that offered survival, many of the people with AIDS held out the hope that a cure would be found before the disease killed them. I never challenged that hope but I did also try to help each person address the possibility of death. Thus one man who hoped for a cure was also able to speak to how he wanted to approach his death. In his case, even that was steeped in hope as he said “I want to look forward to stepping into the light.”

I also tried to help people find a hope grounded in action when appropriate. Thus, I might help an alcoholic find some hope that he/she could heal and then help them see that action such as attending AA might actualize that hope.

Yet hope based in faith challenges us. The key to a faith-based hope is letting go. As the AAers say “Let go and let God.” Clearly this is based in hope. When I try to let go and let God, I come face-to-face with my fears and my need to be in control. If I try to let go and let God, I am hoping that the result will be positive, perhaps in ways I cannot see.

There are many Biblical encouragements of hope. My own favorite comes from Isaiah 30:41: “And they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not grow faint.”

The opposite of hope is fear which says that things will just get worse and that any prayer or action I might take is futile. This fear is pervasive these days. Is it too much of a stretch to suggest that hope is as elusive today as it was in the days of the Babylonian captivity?

To close, then, here is a scene from the wonderful film The Shawshank Redemption, a film in which the main character Red is redeemed from hopelessness by his friend Andy:

Hope is indeed a good things. May you be blessed with it.

Reflection: How hopeful are you these days? What nurtures that hope?