Conversations on Hope

These early morning musings come as I consider the questions that others have shared with me in their search for meaning. December’s SCRIBBLES prompted many responses and the theme of hope seemed to emerge--hope longed for, promised, sometimes felt. I decided to change our format a bit and offer conversation around this theme. The section below is given over to sharing three of these emails and a response to each of them. Thank you to all who wrote though I could not respond to all.

On Christmas Eve I pulled up the sermon given at the National Cathedral by the Right Rev. Marianne Budde. I was following along and moved by so much of what she was saying. At about 10 minutes in, I realized her message was sounding familiar, very much like what I'd read in SCRIBBLES some days before. God chooses to involve us in saving the world. Saying "yes"--Mary's yes, Joseph's yes, our yes--means to live our lives as part of God's larger purpose in the world. This is how God brings change to our world. So grateful for God-with-us, Emmanuel. - Dorothy

Your email prompted me to also listen to her message. Thank you for that. I am nowhere near as articulate as Bishop Budde, but you are spot on in your understanding of her message and it runs through both her thoughts and those of SCRIBBLES. May we continue in this new year to say yes to God's invitation in our lives. - Kathleen

To view the sermon Dorothy refers to, click on the link below. You may advance the clip to the 10 minute mark to hear the portion Dorothy refers to, about 5 minutes, but the whole 16 minutes is worth your time.

From my youngest years I always imagined that Mary was outside, working alone in a vast garden in the sun. That is why no one else in the family saw the angel. And the angel never asked her permission about Jesus, he just said, you will bear a Child. He didn't "await an answer" because he already knew the answer.
God bless you this Christmas! - Sheila

I love that image of Mary in the garden as you describe. Over the years I've heard people describe scenes that captured my attention and re-framed the event in a meaningful way. There's an "aha!" to your imagining her gardening, as it recalls that first Garden in Eden. How perfect is that! You might notice that in Fra Angelico's painting of the Annunciation, Mary is seated in an outside portico but behind her is the garden scene of Eden.

One Sunday in Advent I asked the children at church what they thought Mary was doing and one of the boys said, "eating." There was a bit of a chuckle all around, but this, too, reframes the story. How often did Jesus share a meal with others? People seemed always to encounter him around the table, a wonderful Eucharistic image. I think that little boy was onto something.

I do want to circle back to the absolute necessity of Mary's freedom in saying yes. Pope Leo XIV most recently underscored this on New Year's Eve, in his homily for the Vigil of the Solemnity of Mary: "He did not impose it; he proposed it to her heart, and once her 'yes' was received, he wrote it with ineffable love in her flesh." - Kathleen

I don't consider myself religious - I do consider myself spiritual. I don't go to church but I enthusiastically believe in God as our father, his son Jesus, who for some strange reason thought he could save us, and the holy spirit.

It says in the Bible that man was created in God's likeness. In the shower this morning I was thinking about the mess this poor world is in and the thought came to my head - "This is God's likeness?" 

We are a mean, brutal animal. We kill our mothers and fathers, we kill our neighbors because we want their land. We steal, we lie, and we cheat. We are miserly towards others and destructive of this beautiful planet that we live on. No other animal does that. 

No...I would rather think that all the other animals are created in God's likeness. Us? Who knows...maybe the devil's got his finger in the mix. 

Now that doesn't mean I don't have hope. Who knows...maybe someday we'll be inspired enough to follow in the animal's likeness.

Maybe that will bring us closer to God. 

Just thought I'd share my thoughts! - Peg

Thank you, Peg. Your thoughts are prayer indeed. You give painful, honest voice to the human condition, the kind of situations we can wake up to on any given day. Perhaps it is good that the Christ of Christmas comes in winter, in darkness, in shadow, wakefulness in the night, showers that cannot wash away worry. These are part of a larger whole that, perhaps, summons us to awareness and, even, hope. (And, yes, the animals. Thank you for that reminder).

Here's a poem for you from Steve Garnaas-Holmes that speaks to our "being ill with what is wrong" but also speaks of companions that are silent and unseen.

To read the poem I shared with Peg, click on the link below. You can also access the audio version at the bottom of the page:

More Responses from Readers....