Why we need hope and joy
BY CARDINAL WILFRID NAPIER OFM
Who needs hope and joy? We all do! That’s the simple answer. In South Africa, as we approach the 50th Anniversary of the calling of the Second Vatican Council, we are in danger of losing our hope and sometimes our joy is diminished.
If we look back at the hope and joy manifest in 1994 and compare that to the current situation as we prepare for the local government elections, we can see that the high of 1994 is not the same high as today. In fact, it is not a high at all. Service delivery protest, electioneering and trials about what constitutes hate speech could easily shatter our hopes and leave us with a bitter, joyless existence
In the gospel of John (15:11), Jesus speaks of his joy being in us so that our joy may be complete. Our joy as believers is not a fleeting joy, a joy only for a time. It is a deep-seated Christian virtue, a life attitude because of our faith.
The Hop&Joy movement is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit moving within our Church. Not only are we commemorating the calling of the Second Vatican Council by Bl Pope John XXIII, we are celebrating and focusing on how we can all manifest the Joy and Hope that is the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
Pope Benedict, in his apostolic exhortation on the Word of God, Verbum Domini, reminds us that our joy is first our encounter with the person of Jesus, the Word sent to fill us with Joy—and it is this encounter that the Church’s gift and inescapable duty to communicate… (cf Verbum Domini 2).
Our Joy in Christ is our Hope. The Holy Spirit manifest in our lives and in the Church changes our joy from a fleeting emotion to a deep seated life attitude.
Most of us struggle with this idea of Joy. And yet, as the opening words of the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes (Joy and Hope—from which we get the name for the movement) counsel us: “The hope and joy, the grief and anguish of the men of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well. It is our experience of Jesus that transforms our Joy.”
Joy manifests Hope. We are joyful because we hope in the kingdom of God, in the person of Jesus and the action of the Holy Spirit.
Our ultimate hope then is not in government, political party, tenders—for these are hopeless, manifestations of the expedience, the art of the possible.
Our hope is a common good, based on a God-given dignity that relativises everything to our relationship with God and our relations with others. Our hope and joy transform our daily lives into that blessed and quiet mission of going to the whole world to communicate our love and life in Christ.
As the slain Archbishop Oscar Romero stated: “Hope is not resignation; it is a commitment to continue to struggle even when things seem to warrant surrender.” Our hope spurs us on to action.
Looking at our Church in Southern Africa, there are many reasons for joy. As a church, we are living our commitment to care for the sick and vulnerable. Many parishes have home-based care groups and support for orphaned and vulnerable children. The Church still provides support to education through our schools. St Augustine’s College trains tertiary students not only to be qualified, but to be ethical leaders in their fields.
We can still be insular. Our recent survey in preparation for the Interdiocesan Consultation pointed out that many communities tended to focus inwards—focusing on internal struggles at the expense of transformational action. We, as your bishops, hope that the Hope&Joy network helps us all to focus anew on the type of action that marked South Africa’s transformation to democracy. It is our hope that the Interdiocesan Consultation will allow us all to celebrate our faith in action.
Hope and Joy are the fruits of prayer. As we celebrate the Easter season, the reason for hope and joy can’t be far from our minds—he is Jesus and he is risen from the dead.
As we pray together, let us give thanks to God for the Church’s impact on society. Not only in the last 50 years since the calling of Vatican II, but the powerful effect of the Church’s mission throughout Southern Africa.
We have struggled for hope and joy together. Sometimes it seems that struggle has been in vain, if we look to the situation of the poor and marginalised in Southern Africa. We cannot give up. Our hope and joy in Christ motivates us to bring a new hope and a new joy into our world.
As we prepare for the local government elections on May 18, I invite you to vote to make hope and joy the marker not only of our Church communities but of our Southern African Community too.
Our hope and joy is in Christ—and that is all the hope and joy we need.
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