As we continue the Knights of Columbus’ “Building the Domestic Church” series, this month we focus on “Hope” and how we can foster hope in our families.
What is hope? Sometimes we have a tendency to reduce the word “hope” to meaning the same thing as “wish.” We often will say something like, “I hope I win the Mega-Millions” or “I hope I win the Super 50/50 at this year’s Spring Fling” or “I hope the Phillies win the World Series this year.” When we say things like that, what we are really saying is that we wish for those things to happen. With “wishing” there is no certainty that the thing we wish for will happen.
Hope is completely different. “Hope” is a certainty about the future based on a relationship in the present. If my mother says that she will pick me up at the train station, I am more than “wishing” that she will do that. I am certain that she will do that. I have hope in my mother doing what she said she would do.
Christian hope is faith in the redemption of Jesus Christ that enables us to face the present, even when there are many problems. Jesus made the promise, “whoever believes in me, even if they die, they will live.” We do not have to wish that Jesus will save us; He HAS already saved us, and if we do our very best to follow Him as His disciple we have a certainty about our future -- we will be with Him in Heaven forever.
Living Christian hope means that we do not get weighed down by pessimism. When we are living Christian hope, we choose to counter discouragement by accepting the love of Christ every day through a robust prayer life. We believe that “all things are possible” with God (Matthew 19:26). The Christian living hope lovingly help their family and friends, because they realize that life in its fullness consists in “being for others” even when the other person is not affirming or loving in return.
When we encounter the life-giving spirit of love in our lives, hope is born in ourselves and in our family. A hopeful family helps each person realize that they live “in the world for a purpose -- to receive God’s love ourselves and to show God’s love to others. God seeks to heal a broken universe. He asks us to be his witnesses and helpers in that work.
One way as a family we can foster the growth of hope is to celebrate the life-giving spirit of your family. You can do this by discussing times in your family’s life when you grew together in faith and love. Discuss moments of your relationship, courtship, engagement and wedding celebrations that helped you grow as a couple. Share stories of your children’s births, and discuss the gift that each of their lives has been to your family. Gather photos or various mementos of these events for a scrapbook or memory box that your family can cherish (my mother has a “hope chest” with such mementos). Get one of your tech-savvy kids to compile these pictures and mementos into a PowerPoint slideshow that you can share with relatives.