"Hope"
Julie Madden
Sunday, September 22nd, 2002

For a moment, please close your eyes and imagine your greatest hope for the world. What does it look like? Can you imagine it coming true?

Now, for a moment, imagine your greatest fear for the world. What does it look like? Can you imagine it coming true?

It is very disturbing for me to confess that at this time my fears – and, it seems, our collective fears – are much more vivid, easier to articulate and more compelling to rally behind than my hopes. These days I find myself proclaiming bad news loudly and to anyone who will listen, including my dental hygienist who made the mistake of asking me how I was and got a diatribe about the lunacy of going to war in Iraq. I regard those who don’t agree with me as, at best, stupid and at worst, evil. My own fears are so great that they drive how I live and how I work, and leave no room for your opinion or for the spirit. This is spiritual death to me and I can’t live this way. Do any of you feel this same attraction these days to living from fear?

Fear is a reasonable response to the darkness in the world right now, but we are called not to be reasonable. We are called to be light. A people of hope, the light of the world. To believe that God animates each and all of us with the capacity for love and compassion. So how do we grow and nurture our own hope so that we can be a source of hope in the world?

Well, we need “hoping mechanisms” and we can find them in the life of Jesus.

We learn from Jesus the importance of going away, going apart. Jesus went away to pray, to center himself, to fix his sights more clearly on his “spiritual vision.” His going apart was not, however, the disengagement so many people seem to be choosing today as their response to an overwhelming world. Jesus didn’t go away to hide till God made things better but to renew his energy to participate more fully and effectively in the world. Likewise, we have to pray, not prayers of deliverance but prayers for the clarity and compassion we need to be vehicles of transformation in the world.

Another thing we learn from the life of Jesus is we aren’t meant to go it alone. Any preschooler can tell you that you don’t go anywhere without your buddy. Henri Nouwen said: “We cannot bring good news on our own. We are called to proclaim the Gospel together, in community. Indeed, whenever we minister together, it is easier for people to recognize that we do not come in our own name, but in the name of the Lord Jesus who sent us.” We are called to proclaim the good news together – to sustain and challenge and restore each other.

At St. Joan of Arc, we know the power of community, of being companions to each other on the journey. Our model of working is collaborative ministry, which we have defined as: creating partnerships to transform the world.

Right now, as our leaders seem to be encouraging us to act from fear and move towards war, I want to mention a few of the signs of hope happening here that I believe can move us towards peace.

First, a small Christian community met with me about a month ago to ask: How do we launch a public action for peace? Well, on October 26 at 3:30pm we will march from the cathedral to the Capitol and we expect to see you there and we expect you to bring the kids. I’m calling this an Action for Amateurs – it’s for all of us who perhaps can’t make meetings several peace meetings a week but would like to be part of a collective, public action that says: “This escalation is wrong. There has to be another way.”

Second, this year our youth will explore the process of registering as a Conscientious Objector, exercising their right to refuse to kill. Whether or not they ultimately choose to pursue this course of action, I think it’s vital that they have a place to ask questions and make an intentional decision and to discern what is right for them in a place where they don’t have to act from fear. I am very happy that place can be St.Joan of Arc.

Third, my husband Michael, Father George and I would not be leaving for the Middle East this week if we were not driven by hope. I look at the bridges we have built to Guatemala and to South Africa and how many people have traveled back and forth over those bridges, building relationships of mutual respect and trust. I hope we can build another bridge. Also, we go as bearers of hope.

Recently I heard Kathy Pierson speak – she just returned from a long time as a volunteer in a Palestinian nursing home – and she was asked what do the Palestinians hope for. She said that their hope is the presence of internationals who witness and bring back the truth and work for change.

Many of you also heard Kathy Kelley speak here. She founded Voices in the Wilderness and works constantly as an advocate for the people of Iraq. Someone asked me if I thought she was hopeful and I believe she is hopeful – in the potential of groups of regular people who are willing to listen to and learn from each other. Well, it doesn’t get any more “regular” than Michael, George and me. Hope is what calls us here and together and into the world with love and compassion.

Dennis Kucinich, the US representative who has introduced legislation to establish a cabinet level Department of Peace says that in this time of darkness: “We are presented with an opportunity for great clarity, a great awakening, to rescue the human spirit through love and compassion. We can make of this world a gift of peace which will confirm the presence of universal spirit in our lives.”

Thank you all for being a source of my hope and my companions on the journey.