Reflection for the month - July

 Hope

Our hope in God’s mercy is reflected when we pray ‘Thy kingdom come’, for God’s kingdom of peace, justice and well-being which is beyond our human grasp, beyond our powers to bring such a heavenly state into being.  In so many different ways many work to bring about even the least of the challenging changes urged upon us by our Faith and our Hope in our Creator and the will to share his love for us with others.

Faith alone will not save us without good works, we must also have hope and love. Hope must be an active response to hardship driving us to respond with love wherever there is need. Consider for a moment the plight of Gaza, where there has been so much widespread destruction of the infrastructure and such heavy loss of life. In the midst of all the destruction, we see dedicated doctors and nurses, risking their lives, working with minimal medical assets in hospitals which have been all but razed to the ground. We see volunteers struggling to distribute food to people who are starving; churches giving shelter to those who have nowhere else to turn. People in action when it seems that the situation is hopeless. These good men and women are truly angels of hope.

Hope is indeed not just a thought, not just words in a prayer, but a commitment to action, -‘Thy kingdom come’, not at some distant future time but for those in need, now, today, provided by even the smallest acts of giving, of volunteering, working for justice and peace in our troubled communities. Hope must restore faith in the love of God, and light a way out of darkness and despair for so many suffering people all over the world.                              David Peacock