Hope Does Not Disappoint

June 12, 2022

Today our lives are invited into the love dynamic of the Most Holy Trinity.  It is a union beyond description, a unity unparalleled and enfolded in mystery.  In the profound wisdom of the Creator/Father, the Son came to save us with a divine sacrifice like no other.  His promise lives on sparked by the Holy Spirit that prompts our minds and fills our hearts.  On this Solemnity, we are to gaze into the mystery and allow the mystery to gaze back at us.

In the Second Reading today Paul in his Letter to the Romans speaks of hope.  Hope does not disappoint.  We all begin new projects with hope; every baseball and football season begins with hope.  Every time I go out to golf, I start out with hope.  Sometimes the hope is just to be able to find my ball.  Yet hope seems to dissipate and reality sets in.  Sports teams underachieve, golf balls go in the water, and we don’t accomplish everything we hoped to do.  Yet hope does not disappoint.  How does that happen?  We live in a world torn apart, polarized and divided.  Gun violence, hatred, and battle lines are drawn up by the minute.  The weapons of words fail to find the truth.  Where is this hope?  I see pain and destruction, suffering and hardship.  How can hope prevail?

The answer is found in the next line Paul wrote. “…because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts.”  God is doing the pouring.  His love is the power of hope.  We are to invite this hope into our hearts and into our whole being.  We are to trust the Holy Spirit so completely that we allow the love dynamic of the entire Most Holy Trinity to become the foundation of our lives.  With this love, we can walk into this world, and even though we suffer, we know we will be given the endurance to embrace it as it is meant to be.

The impact of the Most Holy Trinity is found in the pouring of love into our hearts.  It is realizing we are a vessel, a receptacle.  Divine Love is longing to fill us.  Love that is creative yet pained, insightful yet demanding.  It is mysterious and cannot be controlled.  Can we open ourselves to that kind of trust?

May this love be poured into us always,

Fr. John