The news is so awful and it seems like it has been since the third hour of the new year… but these people in California are inspiring me. And they are teaching me about hope during this Jubilee “Year of Hope” which I have been approaching with a sense of unease — wondering if I even know what hope is.
I see it now, in these sorts of actions great and small actions coming out of the devastated area of Los Angeles.
Rebuilding homes and infrastructure will be on the shoulders of others — and that for years to come — but the locals who have taken it upon themselves to coordinate relief to the afflicted have been sustaining the human spirit, so easily wounded and brought low. They’ve been helping people by rebuilding hope, one meal, one package of supplies, one crate of baby formula and binkies at a time. …
One of the most perfect descriptions of hope ever written comes to us from Emily Dickinson:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at allThe act of sustaining hope in our sisters and brothers when they are in need is no easy thing. It is heroic, but even more, it is noble in the way that great and honorable acts are so often predicated upon the tiniest things and the littlest ways — small acts of humanity and love-of-neighbor that arise organically and instinctively, that come without press releases and last more than 15 minutes.
Sustaining hope is something remarkable within humanity, and the Holy Father is right to encourage people of faith to think about hope, learn to recognize hope and be givers of hope.
Read my piece at the NorthwestCatholic and see how hope is being built, package by package, meal by meal, in Southern California!
Image: Mathias Fischer, Austria, via Pixabay, public domain