Description
Hope and transformation usually come through our experiences of loss. What need is there for hope if life is always good and things always go well? It is the experience of loss and suffering which makes hope necessary. Life, at times, is a very painful mystery, but if we are open to it, loss and suffering will transform us. We will become more loving and more free. The dying that is involved can bring about the rising, or the birth, of a new self. It is the work of grace, and our cooperation with it. It is the story of Jesus. Hope is the small flame that burns in the darkness, when every reason for it to be burning is gone: ‘the softest flame, almost unseen, burning without a cause’. It is not something we can generate on our own; it is a gift from beyond.
