I caught my breath and sighed deeply at the news of the death of Pope Francis this week, another seismic change in the world. Then I picked up a book I very recently received – his autobiography, published only a few months ago, titled “Hope.” Day by day I have begun to read it, as I consider both the gifts of Christianity and its horrible perversions. We are living in this country with the perversions, writ large. Pope Francis had a much different perspective.
This is what he said in the introduction: “People often say ‘wait and hope’ – so much so that the word esperar in Spanish means both ‘to hope’ and ‘to wait’ – but hope is above all the virtue of movement and the engine of change. It’s the tension that brings together memory and utopia to truly build the dreams that await us. And if a dream fades we need to go back and dream it again, in new forms, drawing with hope from the embers of memory.”
Last Sunday we heard similar perspectives from climate activists such as Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Terry Tempest Williams, Leah Penniman, and more. Hope is the motion, the movement, that keeps us aiming and working for our highest goals. Even when we think all is lost. Love is the motivation.
I also received this quote from the writings of Tennessee Williams this week, with gratitude: “This world is violent and mercurial – it will have its way with you. We are saved by love – love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share; being a parent, being a writer, being a painter, being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.”
