Hopeless As Hell

Seeing the grace and hope in every situation  

Isaiah 11:1-10  

           On that day, A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, A Spirit of counsel and of strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.   

          I have a firm conviction that there are no hopeless situations. That is, I believe no matter how bad, or how sad, or how dark or how depressing life gets, there is always hope. Why is that? Well, because I am convinced there is a grace – a spark of goodness and of God – in everything. I absolutely believe this.   

          To test this theory, let’s look at the most hopeless place of all, namely, hell. Who can forget that famous inscription above the doors to hell that Dante reads before entering hell in the Inferno. It states, almost as if the doors were talking to us: “Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain…Abandon all hope ye who enter here.” I remember one friend in seminary who posted those words above his dormitory door, “Abandon all hope!” But is even hell without hope? One of the great theologians of the last century, Hans Urs von Balthasar, argued that we can have a “reasonable hope” that all will be saved. Notice, he did not say that everyone will in fact be save, indeed, some may not, but it is not unreasonable to hope for that. Why did he say that? Well, because there is grace everywhere, so there is hope everywhere. Even Dante, when he entered beneath those dark doors, did not abandon all hope – he emerged on the other side a holier and more hopeful man.   

          In the first reading today, we see the root of all our hope, namely, in the prophesy of Isaiah. The prophet foretells: “On that day, a Shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse and from his roots a bud shall blossom.” Isaiah is predicting the future Messiah, of course. But notice the imagery is one of virtual hopelessness – a lifeless stump – like the admonition on the gates of hell, “abandon all hope.” And yet Isaiah did not abandon all hope. Why? Because there is grace everywhere, thanks to the coming of the Messiah. You see, with the coming of Christ, “hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blessed,” as Alexander Pope poetically put it. With Jesus, there is always hope.

          My friends, I offer this message to you when you face supposedly hopeless situations. Please know there is a grace in every moment, and that grace should give you hope. Sometimes we feel we have sinned so much God will never be able to forgive us, maybe we’ve even procured an abortion. That’s why the pope let priests for give abortions: so people feel like there’s always hope. Some people struggle with same-sex attraction, or a family member does. They feel it’s hopeless to remain a good Catholic under those conditions. I say don’t give up hope, keep trying to do the right thing. When a Catholic gets divorced, they feel marriage is hopeless and want to give up on love. But I believe there is a grace in every moment, even the moment of divorce, a grace that helps us grow closer to Christ. Perhaps your children have stopped going to church and Mass. Don’t give up hope: even if they are not searching for God, God is searching for them.  Maybe you are terminally ill and feel hopeless; there is grace in the suffering, too.

          In other words, it’s not only on the doors of hell that we read the words, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Those words are ubiquitous. But even more ubiquitous is grace and goodness and hope. Here’s the whole quatrain from Pope: “Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blessed: The soul, uneasy and confined from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.” Christians never abandon all hope.

          Praised be Jesus Christ!