Hope can be so elusive, yet hope is as necessary as the air we breathe. I am privileged to be a spiritual guide to some amazing people who have lived through distressing events. I say to myself, “If I were faced with something similar, I think I would give up.” What keeps them going? Where does their resiliency come from?
I also hear some directees say, “I just can’t get into the Holy Spirit. It’s too elusive to comprehend.” Yet I think to myself, “We could not go on without the Holy Spirit in every breath we take.” Bidden or unbidden, is it not the Creating Spirit who gifts us with every breath, every heartbeat, every thought?
Is there a connection here? Hope may be another name for the Holy Spirit. Hope may not be some thing. It may not even be a virtue. Hope may be the very well-spring of God’s Spirit dwelling within us and all of creation.
When something and Someone is that deep and that core to our reality, it is by its nature elusive. In God, we live and move and have our being… often without even noticing. In Hope, we keep on keepin’ on, even if we don’t recognize the Source of our ability to rise to each new day.
When we hear, “Hope springs eternal”, it may just be because Hope IS Eternal. As Gaudium et Spes from Vatican II asks, “Do we hear the echo in our hearts?”
