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Apr
1
Written by:
Jean Champagne
4/1/2009 12:00 AM
Our President calls us to hope, which seems opportune, if not downright auspicious, given that the opposite of hope is despair. Indeed, despair is defined as the loss of hope. After all, did not the inscription at the very gate of hell read “All hope abandon ye who enter here,” in Dante’s Divine Comedy? A sobering thought to be sure, but seemingly appropriate for the circumstances.
What is puzzling, however, is the loss of hope that seems to engulf so many in today’s society, to the extent that our President was elected by reminding us that things can and will improve. This is not intended to be a political statement, nor an endorsement. Indeed, the jury will remain out for some time on exactly what effect(s) the Stimulus Plan will have on our collective reason for hope. Nonetheless, hope is important, as are faith and charity, the big three of 1 Corinthians 13 in the King James Bible, which tells us that “now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” Other versions of the Bible substitute “love” for “charity,” and the two are generally considered interchangeable in this context.
While defined differently for religious purposes, “faith” and “hope” can mean much the same, including when used in a secular sense, as a belief in something greater than ourselves. An accepted truism holds that the only way to ensure failure is to give up, and the ultimate in giving up is losing hope. The greatest achievements in world history were accomplished by men and women who persevered against unimaginable odds. Consider the building of a cathedral in medieval Europe. The masons who laid the foundation knew that they would be unlikely to live to see its completion, and yet they were content to be a part of the greater good.
In recent days we have seem unimaginable tragedies unfold in Alabama and in Germany, as distraught young people have embarked on shooting rampages. These are not the first, and apparently will not be the last. What can cause such disaffection with humanity other than a loss of hope, a despair so profound that no hope for a better future could penetrate it. On a daily basis we are inundated with bad news about the economy, about failing social systems, about regular people losing their jobs and their homes. At the same time, positive news gets short shrift and happy events are dismissed as aberrations. Celebrity mishaps call for national mourning, as if somehow worthy of more attention than the problems that beset you and me. Our national malaise is magnified until it washes over all of us, like Carl Sandburg’s fog creeping in “on little cat feet.” We turn around once and can’t figure out why we’re so sad.
Don’t tell me that we should be sad because of everything that has happened and is continuing to happen. That won’t make it better, as our parents and grandparents knew and put into practice. One major difference is that they had no expectation that the government or anyone else was going to make it better. They had faith and they had hope for a better future, which they put into practice. During the 1927 flood, they didn’t sit on their rooftops waving signs, they swam for shore and moved on with their lives.
This brings me to what Paul Harvey used to call “the rest of the story.” 1 Corinthians 13 goes on to say the following:
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Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
In other words, charity (or love) is the catalyzing agent necessary for faith and hope to be effective in any significant way. In a previous column, I wrote about how disasters have a way of revealing the essential character of people (Character in the Aftermath of Disaster). It is equally true that how we deal with our misfortunes and those of our neighbors will determine whether our faith and hope are rewarded. We alone have the ability to change things for the better (again, I am not speaking politically), and it begins with how we treat our neighbors. Quit listening to the relentless, creeping negativism of the mainstream media and believe that things will get better. Transfer this belief to your relations with your neighbors. One simple way is to practice courtesy in traffic; will it kill you to let someone in? Another way is to round up when you tip a waiter or waitress. Don’t you think that perhaps that dollar is more significant to them than it is to you? The movie Pay it Forward provided an example of a reverse Ponzi scheme, where proactive good deeds were multiplied exponentially. The future is in our hands, and what we do will affect the collective hope of everyone around us. Collectively, we can make it brighter, with or without glibness from Washington.
(My apologies to the Bible scholars in our midst, of which I am certainly not one. I hope that I’m close, but if not, a little charity, please.)
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