Finding a Better Basis for Hope
by Mike Sirany
Michael Sirany was certified through the Wayzata Cenacle as a spiritual director and has been directing since 1995. He has an MA in theology (concentration in spirituality), and has served as a teacher and supervisor in the spiritual direction training programs at Sacred Ground Center for Spirituality, in St. Paul, and at the University of St. Catherine. He is currently involved in a leadership role in the Episcopal spiritual director’s group in Minnesota. His spiritual direction practice includes a wide variety of clients, both lay and clergy, from several different religious traditions. He is married, has two adult children, and three grandchildren. He writes, “I have a commitment to growing more deeply in relationship with a loving God, and a deep, experiential belief in the value of listening compassionately to the movement of the Spirit in one’s life.”
As a person with a tendency to see the glass as half-empty, I have struggled in the past with maintaining a generally positive or hopeful outlook towards life. Current local and world events have not made my quest to be a hopeful person any easier. As a spiritual director, I have heard many others express increased difficulty in maintaining an attitude of hope in their lives. That tends to amplify the hints of powerlessness and despair I sometimes feel. Fear and trepidation about where our country and world are headed seems to have a force or power that is almost palpable in our culture. The upcoming election has been for me and many of my directees a source of low-grade, constant anxiety.
Faith, HOPE, and Love
Even so, I understand intellectually the importance and value of hope, which was important enough to Paul that he ranked it as one of the three great theological virtues along with faith and love. This trio shows up in five of Paul’s letters. The value of hope in one’s life as an intellectual virtue is also affirmed by Nancy E. Snow, who describes hope asa motivational and generative force that can sustain a disposition toward qualities of endurance, perseverance and openness to the pursuit of one’s goals (1). How do we maintain a sense of trust and confidence that, in the end, “all will be well”, as Julian of Norwich did even in the midst of watching people around her suffer and die from the black plague in the fourteenth century? Is it possible that hope fails us because we misplace the basis of our hope?
What is the Real Basis of Your Hope?
The illusory religious maxim, according to English theologian and writer John MacMurray, is: Fear not, God will take care of you and your fears will not come to pass. The basis of this kind of hope lies in a favorable outcome, which almost always over-relies on our ego or an attachment to something we believe we need in order to be truly happy. Contrast this to a real religious maxim: Fear not, God will take care of you; what you fear may come to pass, but if it does you will find out that you are still OK at some level. You need not fear as if God was not with you. This encouragement to hope doesn’t guarantee a good outcome short-term, and most certainly isn’t an assurance of lack of pain or suffering, but is based in trust in God’s ultimate promise that, as Paul said in Rom 8:38-39, nothing can ever separate us from the love of God as revealed through Christ Jesus. Episcopal Priest and author Cynthia Bourgeault refers to this kind of hope as “mystical hope” and says its basis is not tied to a good outcome but rather to a connection with a permanent, abiding presence in our lives of an unconditional love and acceptance, a sense of hope more in line with the heart of Julian of Norwich’s famous expression, “All will be well, all manner of things will (ultimately) be well.”
Hope In God’s Unconditional Love
I see resonance between what I have written above and my Ignatian-based training that counsels to let go of attachments to anything that I believe I might need in order to be “happy.” Ignatius would call this “holy indifference” and counsels further to re-order my priorities to only one ultimate need: a deepening understanding of and belief in God’s unconditional love for me (2). Can I put my trust not in an immediate and preferred outcome, but rather practice a deeper understanding of hope that is based ultimately on the indestructible and ultimate power of love as that which will endure forever, and from which I can never be separated?
A Hope in Progress
I answer this question for myself by saying that I am working on it; it is a work in progress. What helps me on my journey is to be with others who are also seeking to replace despair and loss of hope with a deeper, more abiding sense of hope that only comes from a belief that ultimately, all manner of things will be well, because we are completely, unconditionally, and (sometimes) unbelievably loved and cherished, a source of ultimate and permanent hope that does not depend on short term outcomes or belief in the illusory religious maxim.
(1) N.E. Snow. “Hope as an Intellectual Virtue” , in M.W. Austin, Virtues in Action, quoted in “Hope and Human Longevity, An Actual Challenging Topic” by Gabriel Hasmatuchi and Maria Sinaci. 12/2021.
(2) Without invoking a Deity, this is very similar to the Buddhist concept of detachment.
Gritty Hope
I invite you to join in the Gritty Hope conversations on Second Sundays at 7:00 PM, where we explore ideas like these even further. We share from our experiences of hope, despair, and commitments to the ultimate quest to live lives that become more and more centered on a hope-filled orientation. Together with others on the journey, we foster hope that is grounded in an increasing awareness of being unconditionally loved -- the “mystical hope” of which Cynthia Bourgeault speaks and to which we aspire.