As a religious director, I’ve the nice alternative to accompany people on their religious journey. A few of my companions work within the Ignatian Volunteer Corps (IVC). With a wealthy array {of professional} and life experiences, they’re at a stage in life after they can retire. But they proceed to present generously of their time to organizations that do charitable work.
As I hear to those folks, I’m consistently in awe of the methods through which they attempt to perceive and reply to Christ’s name to serve of their lives daily of their houses and of their communities. What strikes me most isn’t how full their lives are, however their indomitable spirit. These are folks of hope with a capital “H”—not a Pollyanna-ish or stressed hope, however a grounded hope rooted in religion.
After I was praying over Austen Ivorey’s e-book, Belonging to God first: On retreat with Pope Francis, these IVC members had been the primary individuals who got here to thoughts. Reflecting on the phrases of Pope Francis, Ivereigh wrote, “Hope isn’t one thing we’ve; Reasonably, hope is what we’re to doonce we act from the conviction that life is price in search of and cherishing.” Hope is the empowerment of people within the Ignatian Volunteer Corps as they work to comprehend the Kingdom right here on earth.
It’s a hope that beckons us all and invitations us to step out of our silos and observe it to the fringes of society. Accompanied by grace, it lightens the center and uneasiness; Folks can now not be happy with injustice and struggling. This hope empowers its adherents—not solely to respect the dignity of each particular person, however to assist restore and preserve the human dignity of those that have had it taken away.
It’s kind of dangerous, as a result of as soon as we settle for the invitation of hope, there is no going again. This hope is transformative. It expands the being, molding those that reply to the decision into women and men for others. This Spirit-driven hope is the catalyst for change that we want in at present’s world. And it is an invite as previous as time; As Psalm 40 invitations us to reply, “Behold, I’m the Lord; I’ve come to do your will.”
