When the Homily is about Immunology

More Conversations with my beloved Atheist: HOPE

In our most recent email dialogue, I made the claim that human beings are the only creatures on earth who hope. To which the BA responded "I rather suspect my dog hopes to clean my plate after supper." Hmmmm...

Is this hope, or expectation. Hope is something bigger than expectation...a sort of pavlov's dog response to past experience is not what I mean by hope. Hope is what we express and teach to our children when we comfort them and tell them that "everything is going to be alright" when if we are truly honest, this may not be true - at least from the secular perspective. Things could get worse, things will not neccesarily work out okay in the end. The bad guy can kill you, get the girl, and live happily ever after. You may spend the rest of your life struggling, suffering, and ultimately dying a painful death. Hope, I hope, is more than believing that statistical odds probably will preclude you from such a fate.

Hope, I think, springs from the notion that the story of life (all of our lives) is not being written by a chimp on a typewriter. Hope connects deeply I think with our innate sense of purpose...that feeling we often get that our lives ought to have a soundtrack and that there truly are lessons to be learned, lessons beyond survival.

Hope that in suffering there is redemption and that in the end, there will be someone to hug us, wipe away our tears, and tell us that "everything is going to be alright."

How can I offer this on a daily basis to my kids, if I myself do not believe it is offered to me?