Breath Prayer and Words for Today: Hope can open my heart.
An old hymn begins "Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness." I'm not crazy about the focus on blood. I would probably rephrase it to say "Jesus' love and righteousness." But the point is the same. Jesus' example of love, allowing himself to literally die in the disciples place, is the beginning of hope (see John 18:1-8). But equally so was his desire for justice in a world in which the 99% were excluded, exploited and (if not cooperative) exterminated (see Luke 4:16-21). It is that love and desire for justice which is incarnated at Christmas and vindicated at Easter. That love enables us to trust and that trust enables us to hope.
But to really hope for the kingdom of God in which none are excluded, all are nurtured and all are liberated for love, light and life -- to really hope for that, requires opening our hearts not only to those who join us in that hope but to those who strive against it. It is not enough to have a dream. We must work for it. Perhaps the greatest dreamer and advocate of hope in our time, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
In this moment of silence allow hope to open your heart. Allow God to show you how you can open the lines of communication with those whom you have feared and those you do not know.
