Spirituality and Wellness
Peggy McDonagh
Reflections on Hope
I have been in ministry for over twenty-five years, and I feel honoured
and privileged that I am invited into the lives of others as they face both
celebrations and challenges. I also have the opportunity to offer sermons
to a congregation that enable us as a faith community and as individuals to
feel a sense of hope as we address many perplexing and complicated issues
that we face in our daily lives and as a global community. These confusing
and troublesome issues and problems seem much more complicated and
disturbing with each passing year.
Pablo Picasso wrote, “Everything you can
imagine is real.” His words ring true because
everything we can imagine about evil, pain,
hatred, destruction, and a blatant disregard for
our shared humanity exists and is all too real.
We live in a broken world, and it seems as if it
is becoming a more terrifying and miserable
place; and living in it seems increasingly
more challenging. A torn and
fragmented world makes for
torn and broken people.
How damaging
and painful to our
hearts to watch
the news or read
in the papers the
atrocity of wars,
of bombing, and
of shootings in
schools and places
of worship and
recreation. People
are being battered and
bruised by prejudice,
bullying, violence, and
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unrest. We cannot help but feel anxious and
overwhelmed by the wreckage of all the ugly
outcomes that arise from growing hostility and
lack of respect and compassion amongst this
world’s people, cultures, and faiths.
Our young people feel increasingly strained,
worried, suicidal, and mentally unwell. Higher
numbers of seniors are falling victim to dementia
and Alzheimer’s disease. Cancer and mysterious
viruses continue to plague and aff ect people of all
ages. Escalating environmental problems damage
our natural world, and the new normal is to
accept that the earth and its people will continue
to experience — more often and with more
intensity — the harsh forces of nature.
In the face of all this, many people feel
bewildered, fearful, helpless, mystifi ed, and
despondent, wondering if humanity is going to
survive. How then do we nurture hope in these
uncertain and disturbing times?
Poet and spiritual teacher Mark Nepo recalls
how he was running as a boy in the playground
one warm summer day. He ran so fast and free
that he fell and scraped his knee. As young Mark
lay on the ground noticing his blood in the sand,