Catholic journalist John Allen died this week after living with cancer for four years. His passing is a great loss to the Church: his balanced, insightful, sober commentary has been a rich source for peoples of all faiths for several decades.
Upon the death of her husband, his wife and fellow journalist, Elise Allen, offered a beautiful reflection on hope in the face of loss. I believe that even those who never heard of John Allen will find wisdom here...
In my husband’s suffering and death, we learned that hope is not a superficial wish that everything will get better, or that painful circumstances will change, but it is an attitude and perspective with which to live life that is chosen and which matures the more it is embraced. In the spirit of "where sin abounds grace abounds all the more," the same can be said about hope. Where pain and suffering are present, so is hope, and it is present everywhere: in the love and generosity of those around us, and in the many little signs and blessings God sends to assure us that we are not alone.
Hope is not empty, and it does not disappoint when things don’t go our way or when God doesn’t answer prayers the way we want; in fact, it is precisely in those moments that hope holds its most precious meaning, because they challenge us. They force us to dig deep, to look beyond ourselves to God, remembering that his design for our lives is one of love, and it is far bigger than our limited understanding. As cliché as this is to say, Christian hope ultimately lies in the fact that we have been offered eternal life. The Jubilee of Hope was a potent reminder of this, and I am so humbled and grateful that after being reminded of this so clearly during the jubilee, John now gets to bask in that beautiful and mysterious gift to which we all aspire.
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