WK-7 LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF HOPE "AS EASTER SEASON STARTS"!

Fr. Charles "Chuck" Wood

Easter Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection

Family, we’ve come this far by faith: With the words of Pope Francis, we’ve been “Looking for Signs of Hope during This Lenten Season.” And now we’ve made it to the threshold of the Easter Season. Reaching this “site” with our current Pope’s guidance calls to mind hope-fueled messages from the other popes who’ve served this century.  

For instance, Pope St. John Paul II used a “threshold” image for his 1994 collection of spiritual reflections, Crossing the Threshold of Hope. And the common thread of hope weaves together Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year announcement, Spes Non Confundit, and Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 encyclical, Spe Salvi (Saved in Hope). The opening words of both documents use St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  

Pope Benedict chose to start like this: “‘SPE SALVI facti sumus’—in hope we were saved, says Saint Paul to the Romans, and likewise to us (Rom 8:24).”

Then, almost like he chose to echo the Servant of the Servants of God who served before him, Pope Francis began his Jubilee announcement, “SPES NON CONFUNDIT. ‘Hope does not disappoint’ (Rom 5:5). In the spirit of hope, the Apostle Paul addressed these words of encouragement to the Christian community of Rome” (emphasis and capitalization as in both original documents).

“Hope” is the word and the godly gift which the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead (see Rom 8:11), has prompted these modern-day popes to bring to our attention, one after the other across a turn of centuries. God knows how desperate the need for hope has been and still is in our 20th– and 21st–Century world.

But our centuries aren’t the only ones to which our Lord has brought a message of divine, supernatural hope through his pilgrim flock, the Church. Consider the special non-Biblical text that’s among the readings for Easter Sunday Mass, the “Easter Sequence.” It’s from the 11th Century, and its composer(s) imagined Mary Magdalene making this Resurrection proclamation, “Yes, Christ my hope is arisen” (emphasis added).

This ancient chant dramatizes the Gospel passage which starts with the selection for the Easter Sunday Mass, John 20: 1-9, and continues through verse 18. Together, this Gospel and Easter Sequence inspire/challenge us with Mary Magdalene’s example of not keeping her hope to herself.

Oh, what comfort and joy Mary Magdalene must have felt when she encountered her risen Lord! His commission—and the consolation she felt—compelled her to pivot from the empty tomb to share the promise of that first Easter. And now we pivot from Lent to the promise of Easter 2025. This promise isn’t only for our comfort and joy. Yes, this Jubilee Year holds out the consolation of being “Pilgrims of Hope.” But that identity brings us God’s commission to be, like Mary Magdalene, “Proclaimers of Hope.”

We hear this divine calling through the harmonious voices of Pope Benedict and Pope Francis. Near the end of Saved in Hope (Article 48), Pope Benedict said:

Our hope is always essentially also hope for others; only thus is it truly hope for me too. As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: how can I save myself? We should also ask: what can I do in order that others may be saved and that for them too the star of hope may rise? Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well.

Let’s conclude with the very last words of Hope Does Not Disappoint (Article 20), Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year announcement which has been our Lenten guide. Note how closely they parallel Pope Benedict’s message.

May the witness of believers be for our world a leaven of authentic hope, a harbinger of new heavens and a new earth (cf. 2 Pet 3:13), where men and women will dwell in justice and harmony, in joyful expectation of the fulfilment of the Lord’s promises.

Let us even now be drawn to this hope! Through our witness, may hope spread to all those who anxiously seek it. May the way we live our lives say to them in so many words: “Hope in the Lord! Hold firm, take heart and hope in the Lord!” (Ps 27:14). May the power of hope fill our days, as we await with confidence the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and glory, now and forever” (emphasis added).

Author: Pastor, Fr. Charles “Chuck” Wood, St Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church – A friendly, Christ-centered parish in the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon (stelizabethportland.net) Member of the African American Catholic community of Oregon, outreach organization.   

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