Couples
for Christ
Homily on Lamentations
By Fr.
Herbert Schneider, S.J.
Introduction
“The Lord is my
portion” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him” (Lam 3:24).” In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Surely, my
brothers and sisters, you know that the symbol for hope is an anchor. Most of
us have been to the beach and have seen bankas
secured a little off shore with an anchor. Without such an anchor even on a
calm day, the boats would begin to drift on to corals or on the shore and get
damaged. This is all the more true on a windy and stormy day.
Similar to
boats, we too need such an anchor that holds us securely in place. Without it
we would be insecure, begin drifting, and most likely come to grief. Our anchor
is our security, our hope when things go bad.
False
Anchors
There are all kinds
of anchors that people choose. Some place their hope in possessions like the
rich man in the parable, who had a great harvest, tore down his barns built
bigger ones to store his surplus, and then was ready to relax and to enjoy
life. The Lord called that person a fool, because all his piled up wealth could
not lengthen his life even for one day.
Some place
their hope in another person or persons. Relationships can get strained and be
broken. People can move away or die and all of a sudden the person
who has placed all his security in another person, finds himself without the
anchor and security.
Still
others place their hope in their talents, education, and achievements. Even
that type of anchor is precarious, because situations can change, assets can
turn into liabilities, a person can become sick and find that all those things
on which he has based his hope is gone.
What is
true of individual persons is also true of communities and organizations. An
organization can also rely so much on its past achievements, resources, and abilities that it becomes blind to changing circumstances, and
little by little looses its ability to read the signs of the times
together with the ability to learn and to change. If that
situation continues such an organization will die sooner or later.
This is
exemplified very much in the Book of Lamentations in the Old Testament. The
In line
with this the poet of Lamentations 3 speaks on behalf of the people of
The Only
True Anchor
We have an outstanding example in
Jesus our Lord. On the cross Jesus experienced being abandoned by God. He
experienced that his life and mission were ending in failure and he cried out
in his anguish: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” But at the moment
of his death in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says: “Father into your hands I
commend my spirit.” In other words, even in this situation of the apparent
absence of the Father, Jesus has such trust that he can abandon himself into
the hands of this absent God.
The Bible
gives us many examples of this hope: the poet of Lamentations 3 from which the
pastoral theme of CFC for this year is taken, the psalmists express a similar
unshaken confidence in God, and, of course, our model in this is Jesus on the
cross. But having such examples doesn’t necessarily give us the power to cling
to the Lord in all circumstances of our life, especially in those when the Lord
seems to be absent.
For the
people of
The same is
true also for us. Both as a community and as individuals we need to recall
God’s love and mercy to us in the past. It is only because we know, because we
have experienced, been touched by the love of the Lord, that we can have hope
that the Lord will never abandon us, irrespective of the circumstances. Because
of the Lord’s past goodness to us, do we cling to him as our anchor and security. We know that clinging to the Lord, we will never
be adrift, and we will never founder on the reefs of life, but will be kept
safe regardless of the squalls that blow up in our life or in the life of our
community.
The
Anchor of Hope for our
Hopelessness cannot
only set us adrift when we are confronted by sickness, death of loved ones,
loss of job, broken relationships and the many other vicissitudes that threaten
our lives. Hopelessness can also threaten the mission that the Lord has
entrusted to us. When we look at our lack of training, our limited resources,
the slow response of people, and apparent lack of growth or gratitude for all
our efforts, we can easily give up. Mustard-seed faith is impossible without
being firmly anchored in the Lord, who alone gives the growth. When we look at
the littleness of our efforts, it is very hard to believe that anything like a
huge shrub or tree could ever result from our work.
Mustard-seed
faith is necessary for community building. It is even more necessary for any
work in area of social transformation. Gawad Kalinga, for example, is a great work of providing not only
housing, but transforming Christian community for the poor and yet when you
compare what has been done with the many people who have neither housing nor
community, all our effort seems hardly to have made a dent and yet even that
little seems to demand more and more of our time, of our effort, of our
resources. It is difficult to go on and to give and give, if we are not
securely anchored in God, our Father, knowing that he sent Jesus and us
especially to the poor to bring healing and restoration. It is only our being
anchored in God and in Jesus, that gives us the strength to labor with joy in
the mission he has given to us irrespective of the cost.
How to
Get a Secure Anchor
How can we grow in hope, hope in our
life and hope for our mission? My suggestion is, take some time off and quietly
go over your own life and recall all the experiences of the Lord’s love and
faithfulness to you. For example, when I look at my own life,
three great gifts of the Lord’s love come to mind immediately: the Lord Jesus
taught me to pray spontaneously when I was just seven years old. When I
was 18, he showed me the need for workers in his vineyard in
Go over
your mission experiences and again discover the presence of the Lord in your
service, working through you. Sometimes the Lord allows us to experience his
power working through us, most often however, we may
not witness any changes. It is the experience of his power that gives us the
hope that he is at work even if we do not see any signs that anything is
happening. Many years ago I gave a retreat to seminarians in
My brothers
and sisters, the symbol of hope is an anchor. The only true anchor for every
situation in our life and mission is Jesus. We have all without exception
experienced his love and faithfulness. The Lord, as