An Uprising of Hope
By Mary C. Daly, RSM
Posted on
We gathered five days after the high school shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida, to begin planning for the Holy Week Triduum of 2018. There had been 18 school shootings since the beginning of January. Within a month’s time, the noted artist, Janet McKenzie, would bring her exhibit, “Embracing Hope” to Mercy by the Sea’s art gallery. How does “Embracing Hope” enter into our “celebration” of the Passion/ Resurrection of Christ with anything more than platitudes?
We uttered words, tossed around ideas, images. The teenagers in Florida protested that they do not want words, not prayers, not consoling thoughts. They want more. Simply, they want life. Life.
Realistically, what is hope? What is hope with bones, hope that is life giving? How does one nurture something that is more than pious words?
When our hope is tended, it can produce two daughters, anger and courage. Anger is a great mover to action. Courage empowers us to face hardship and tragedy. With these two offspring, hope becomes creative, able to face destructive power, rendering it powerless. Embracing hope can lead to an uprising of hope. In the Bible, life and hope arise from the weak, the lowly, the overlooked. They stand with the women at the foot of the cross and move with them to the garden of resurrection. They celebrate Easter in the springtime of new growth, of small beginnings, in the persevering power of new life in the face of death.
We spent Holy Week celebrating the Mystery of Hope in a dark and violent time.
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