The Wind in Our Sails
Hope is what propels us home through life’s storms
Deacon Robert T. Yerhot Comments Off on The Wind in Our Sails
God gives us three theological virtues at baptism: faith, hope and charity. Allow me to use an image to describe them. Life is a stormy sea, repeatedly challenging and threatening us. The ship, tossed to and fro in high waves, is faith, giving us buoyancy; as long as we have faith, we won’t sink. The wind in our sails is hope, the force that propels us through the rough waters and deep seas of life. Our destination is charity, the port of safety for which we long and the harbor where the storms of life will be no more.
Pope Blessed John Paul I once mused about these virtues in an imagined letter to the poet Charles Péguy, one of a series of such letters collected into the book Illustrissimi. He suggested that perhaps God is not all that amazed by our faith, because he has left so many signs of his presence in the world and in our lives. Maybe, too, God is not all that amazed by our charity, because he created us out of love and for love, so we cannot help but love. But, John Paul I thought, God may very well be amazed by our hope, given the storms of life. We are the amazement of God because of our hope! What a beautiful thought!
For the medieval poet Dante, hope is waiting with the certitude of faith. Hope is forward-looking and rooted in love for God in the certitude of a future glory that will be ours. These are indeed encouraging words in which we can find spiritual comfort.
Why, we may ask, do we struggle to hope when confronted by the storms of our lives? Why do we lose hope as Peter did as he began to walk toward Our Lord on the stormy sea, crying out, “Lord, save me!” (Mt 14:30). I suspect that Peter was like us in many ways. What he experienced that night on the sea overwhelmed his learned ability to tolerate intense internal and external fears, so he panicked and began to sink. We too have our spiritual and psychological limits, limits that can be expanded if we prepare ourselves diligently for the inevitable storms of life. We need to tolerate and regulate our intense responses to life’s difficulties. We can mature in this way if we remain in competent spiritual direction, and, for some of us, in psychotherapy. I cannot overstate the importance of this in the spiritual life and diaconal ministry.
Grounded in faith and love of God
We who have lived for a length of time have seen the face of death. We have seen the cross in our lives and in the lives of others. We know that life can be ugly. Suffering is inevitable. Hope, grounded in grace and human affective maturity, drives us through the storms, the sufferings and the ugliness of life.
Have you ever wondered what the difference was between Peter and Judas Iscariot? Both were chosen. Both were friends of Jesus. Both sinned horribly against Our Lord. The difference, I think, was this: Peter had hope, and (I suspect) greater human maturity. Judas despaired, unable to tolerate the intensity of his guilt and remorse. Peter chose to live, reconciled with Jesus and renewed in faith and love for him; Judas chose to die, unable to remain in relationship with his Lord.
Let us be like Peter. Let us live in hope, not despair. Let us choose life, not death. When we inevitably fall, sin, are sinned against, or suffer, let us immediately turn to faith, hope and love. Let us pick ourselves up, seek reconciliation and never give in to discouragement!
When life gets tough, cling to hope. When you must struggle, live on in hope, grounded in faith and love of God. When looking at the cross in your life, see in it your hope of future glory. Jesus knew there was no detour around it. He knew the cross was the only route to the harbor of safety — that is, to the eternal love of God for us all. Hope, enabled by grace and built upon mature human foundations, drives us across the sea of life toward the embrace of God’s love in heaven. Never lose hope! Never be discouraged. Indeed, you are the amazement of God when you hope.
DEACON ROBERT T. YERHOT, M.S.W., is the director of the diaconate for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota. He is a core-group member of the Institute for Diaconal Renewal in Steubenville, Ohio. A spiritual director for clergy, he has published articles on diaconal spirituality.
