"Hope and Healing Continued"
Fr. George Wertin
Sunday, November 9th, 2003

Last time I spoke I proposed that we make ‘hope and healing’ the focus of our parish life during these fall and winter months. We have experienced pain, suffering and disillusionment. As a community committed to justice, peace and nonviolent resistance to evil we see these values being trampled. Militarism and violence are our nation’s responses to terrorism – as if political and social change anywhere can be accomplished by attacks and force - as if attacks and occupation will not breed resistance and backlash. Moreover, there are challenges to our community’s inclusivity and commitment to being a hospitable community. We also face economic struggles for ourselves and distress at the pains of the people throughout the world who are exploited for their labor to create cheap goods for Wal-Mart and other purveyors of cheap goods. Finally, we face our own personal crises with family struggles and serious illnesses.

We need healing. And healing is a process – not a matter of saying magic words or taking a dose of medicine. Healing requires patience and endurance. It requires a supportive community to see us through. It also leaves scars so that we will always have reminders of what we have been through. Pope John XXIII was once asked why he called Vatican Council II. He replied, “To make the human sojourn on earth less sad.” He understood brokenness and healing.

One thing that concerns me is that we are in danger of being corrupted by cynicism. What is cynicism? Historically, it was a Greek school of philosophy led by Diogenes. Its adherents believed that virtue is the only good and its essence lies in self-control and independence. Jesus was sometimes misunderstood as some sort of Jewish cynic. Flowing from that, the popular understanding is that cynicism is a faultfinding and critical attitude of persons who believe that human conduct is motivated wholly by self-interest. Cynics distrust human nature and human motivation.

There are lots of reasons to be cynical today. In the public arena columnists say that being a ‘good politician’ today is an oxymoron – a contradiction in terms. Political commentators say their jobs are at risk because the only thing politicians read are the polls and percentages. We are told that negative TV ads really work and are told the winner of the campaign will be the best candidate money can buy! Military attacks and violence are viewed as the only solution to international problems – not the last resort.

And in the Church, we see a withdrawal from the implementation of the vision of Vatican II. It is replaced by something called restoration which means getting things back to pre-Vatican II patriarchy and top-down directives. The selection of bishops’ process is secretive and non-democratic. Women are made to be invisible. We are simply told to pray for more vocations to supplement the shrinking number of celibate priests.

In sum, we feel overwhelmed and burdened by the plight of living in a global village where we are confronted with every social pain and tragedy in the world. There is a name for it: compassion fatigue.

In the face of all this we find a balm in our Christian faith. We call it hope. Hope isn’t the denial of reality, but it’s coming to a new perspective. As Judy Griep, who has discovered the rich meaning of hope through her years of living with cancer, says: hope is more of a verb than a noun. She has developed an acronym for H.O.P.E. – having other possibilities exist. Remember, Christian faith is not built on optimism – the conviction that everything will inevitably turn out right. It is built on hope – that all will be well if we have faith in God and open ourselves to change and growth. As the philosopher says, “Change is the nature of life and its hope.”

We have to cooperate with change, not resist it. Recently I was at a conference about problems in the inner city. One person said, “Somebody will do something about it. They always do.” And another person responded, “Yes, that somebody has to be you and me. There is nobody else.

One of my favorite saints is Sir Thomas More – husband, father, and chancellor of England under Henry VIII. Just before he was executed he turned to the people who were watching and said, “I die the king’s good servant, but God’s first.” We need to keep our priorities clear!

Hope inspires our Conversations on Peace group to begin work on a “Peace in the Precincts” project to influence the issues that are raised in caucuses and political conventions. Hope inspires a significant number of Joan of Arc’ers to travel to Milwaukee this weekend for the national “Call to Action” conference working for renewal in the church. Hope inspires us to work with the Search Institute to find more effective ways of supporting our youth and integrating them into our community.

Let me conclude my telling the story about the Native American grandfather who was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said, “I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.” The grandson asked him, “Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?” The grandfather answered: “The one I feed.”

We have choices to make. We can make the choice to go with violence and attack. That’s one choice. Or we can be cynics and give up. That’s another choice. Or we can choose the third way and recommit ourselves to peace, non-violence, inclusivity and compassion. That is the way of hope and healing.