By Fr Sunil Macwan, SJ –
Material things can deplete. Material things can perish. Material things can escape us when we need them most. Our experience of the coronavirus-induced lockdown suggests that material things are in short supply for most people nowadays. Instead, deprivation, disease, and death seem to be roaming our streets. Will the situation change? Will the pandemic end? Will we survive it? Many such frightening questions assail our minds each passing day. And from a material point of view, there are no easy answers. There are no scientific, economic, or political assurances yet.
From a spiritual perspective, however, there is a reassuringly optimistic answer. Hope. In these dark times, hope can guide us to the light of life at the other end of the tunnel. A healthy dose of hope is our spiritual vaccine against all negativity, fear, and defeatism in times of crisis. The challenge is to sustain it in the three crucial entities: the humanity, others, and self!
First, I need to hope in the humanity’s attachment to life at two levels. At the level of accepting it as a gift from God, and at the level of enhancing it by finding means to transcend the scientific, medical, and moral limits of human life to make it more enduring and fulfilling. Seeking to nurture life and striving to enhance its quality is humanity’s spiritual response to life itself. Crucially, the hope in humanity’s collective response at the time of the crisis of our lives can infuse positivity in me.
Second, trusting in the humanity’s will to survive and thrive implies trusting in the fellow human beings I encounter in my daily life. It is important to believe that my loved ones, friends, and acquaintances communicate to me a zest for life that provides an extra shield against the forces of death. I need to have a trust in them that bodily and spiritually they only mean good to me; not evil, not death.
Third, I need to hope that my inner spiritual resilience will enable me to face life’s crises courageously. Or it will strengthen me to fight them till my last breath. Or it will prepare me to accept with courage and serenity the loss of loved ones, silently thanking God for the lives we shared. Spiritual strength, when transformed into hope, can give me renewed strength and resolve to carry on with life in the hardest circumstances. Therefore, that hope in oneself is vital to make the right material and spiritual choices when life poses hard questions, and demands definite answers in quick time.
In his poem, ‘An Essay on Man’, Alexander Pope exhorts human beings to keep hope in God with humility. “Hope springs eternal in the human breast:/Man never is, but always to be blest:/The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home, /Rests and expiates in life to come,” writes Pope. Hope in God leads the humanity to hope in the life that comes from Him. Hope reinvigorates the human instinct for survival and encourages us to keep believing in the power of life even in the jaws of death. In the midst of wants, fears, and uncertainties, it is hope that helps us cling to life, no matter how scarred and altered that life be after the storm.
Finally, spiritual hope is directly linked to faith. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” says the author of the Book of Hebrews. Any act of hope presupposes faith; without the latter the former cannot sustain itself. Any hope in the humanity, fellow beings, or myself has to be anchored in faith. Faith in the God who directs life in all its forms and nurtures it. Hope guided by faith is the spiritual vaccine readily available to the struggling humanity against corona pandemic. It will strengthen your spirit and help you cultivate the right disposition even as individually and collectively we continue to wrestle COVID 19 in a life-and-death battle.
Fr. (Dr.) Sunil Macwan, SJ, is a professor of English at St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad. He holds an MA and Ph.D. in post-colonial literature from Marquette University, USA, as well as MA in philosophy and a Diploma in Theology from Madras University and Gujarat Vidhya Deep, Vadodara, respectively. As a priest he’s keenly interested in promoting the Catholic Faith and spirituality.