Expectant Hope
Fifteenth Sunday Ordinary (A)
Readings
* Isaiah 55:10-11
* Romans 8:18-23
* Matthew 13:1
Expectant Hope
Waiting For Cake
In one of the cartoons by Charles Schultz we find Lucy and Linus sitting in front of the television set. Lucy says to Linus, “Go get me a glass of water.” Linus, looking surprised says, “Why should I do anything for you? You never do anything for me.” “On your 75th birthday,” Lucy promises, “I’ll bake you a cake.” Linus gets up, heads to the kitchen and says, “Life is more pleasant when you have something to look forward to.”
Most of us find that’s true, don’t we? Life is more pleasant, more bearable when you have something to look forward to. If our future was entirely filled with darkness and gloom, with no chance of the light breaking through, we would find living in the present unbearable and terribly heavy. We all need some assurance that at some point, light will fall on the road that stretches out before us.
Pregnancy
In our reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans, we hear that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed in us.” Paul goes on to compare ourselves, and all of creation, to a pregnant woman who is about to give birth.
Who could be more filled with hope than a woman who knows that life is growing within her? She is so aware that new life involves an ongoing process. The child in her womb begins as a seed of new life, and miraculously grows into a completely new human person. Down through the ages, men and women have been caught in the absolute wonder of it all. We have learned that we need to wait in hope.
We Are All Pregnant
St. Paul is telling us that we need to take this image and apply it to all of creation and to ourselves as part of that creation. “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”
We need to know that all of us are always pregnant in God’s sight. We are pregnant with new possibilities for the world and for ourselves. Actively waiting in hope is something we all need to learn, if we want to live and not merely survive.
But living in hope is not an easy task. There are so many voices proclaiming death and despair that we could easily be swallowed up by these prophets of doom. The negative energy that comes our way each day needs to be countered by a living hope that we carry deep within ourselves.
The Quickening
What is it that keeps the hope of a pregnant woman alive? The first few months for many women can be very difficult, so I’ve been told. The beginning can be a hard time. But then there comes the quickening. This is the moment when the woman first feels the baby moving within her.
Here is how one woman describes it: On my birthday, I felt a little poke, poke, poke that I knew was definitely my babies moving. It felt almost like popcorn popping! I was spending my birthday in the hospital without my husband or family so I was feeling a little sad and lonely. Feeling my babies moving was the sweetest feeling! It was the best birthday present ever. It made me realize that I WAS spending my birthday with my family.
Often we need to see, in some small way, a sign of what we are hoping for. Our hopes can’t be entirely just in the future, completely beyond our imagination. We have a need to sense the presence of eternity in our life here on earth. Isn’t this one of the reasons why experiences of beauty as found in nature, music, and art are so important? Or why we cherish joy, love, peace, forgiveness, compassion, and affection? Isn’t this why community, marriage and friendship can be so life-giving? These are the quickenings which enable us to walk with a deep hope inside of us.
Like a pregnant woman, we sense the first beginnings of endless life, and hang onto those experiences to bring us through the difficult times. We need to call on those experiences to deepen our faith and trust in a God who calls us further down the path of life, into a life where our hopes will become reality.