29th Sunday Reflection: Hope In The Face Of Injustice
Franciscan Reflections From The Hermitage – Hope In The Face Of Injustice – 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – (Luke 18:1-8)
“… when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
What does it mean to live without faith, to lose heart, to lose the strength of motivation? When we encounter those in whom hope and heart have been lost, love also is lost and depression always fills this void. ‘Where there is no hope, the people perish.’ (Proverbs 29:18) This is the doorway into Dante’s living hell.
Illness, suffering, loss of a loved one, or our identity or independence, abuse, injustice… there are many paths to this living hell. Even within the church many have lost heart, lost hope, and disconnected themselves from the support of the sacrament of community.
Many frightening dangers have caused this loss of heart. Corruption and the abuse of power have been as corrosive as fundamentalism and the appropriation of the gospel for selfish, nationalistic, and financial agendas. All of us need reconnection between ourselves and God, between ourselves and creation, and between ourselves and the earth and all its peoples; a reconciliation through understanding, compassion and forgiveness.
Eve Ensler relates the story of finding a roadmap to forgiveness after the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. He had been “The gifted golden boy, the adored ‘wunderkind’, but, as it turns out, adoration is not love; it is the projection of someone’s need for you to be perfect onto you… and the impossible ideal that this imposes… never allowing that person to truly be themselves.”
Many beautiful and successful people fall prey to such adoration instead of the real thing, love. Idolising someone does not have the depth of true love, it may be compelling but it’s an illusion that lead Eve’s father into his personal nightmare shadow-land. The one who should have been the pillar of physical and emotional well-being, stripped her of identity and hope.
Her path to the recovery of identity and hope was through forgiveness. Through the power of an apology fully disclosing every detail of the abuse, understanding the shadow-land of the abuser, and inviting that person into the heart of the victims’ suffering. This is the Sycamore project being played out.
Prayer is about this connection, about communication, being acknowledged, being seen, and being known. Prayer changes us, opening us to the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation, to the restoration of our hope, the road to redemption… restoring the knowledge of our true identity and inherent value.
Prayer brings us to that grace of hope, the grace of courage to bear our hurt and suffering. The efficacy of prayer depends on our faith as the human response to God’s grace, coming to know our total dependence on God and aligning our will with God’s will for the ‘good’.
Prayer crosses the divide, bridges the gap, and enables us to become one, experience connection and love, overcoming indifference. Prayer in faith is the springboard, the core, the power that touches and moves our hearts to compassion.
Help us, Oh God, to be ever mindful of the beauty around us. May we grow with our flowers in gentleness, patience, courage, laughter, and religion. As we turn the brown soil and plant our seed, may we learn faith … faith in the goodness of the earth, the clemency of the sun, the fullness of the clouds… Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who feeds us and rules us, and produces various fruits with coloured flowers and herbs. Amen. (St Francis Canticle of the Sun)
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