The Bossman

Moving from a modest hope to a great hope

10/29/2019

Romans 8:18-25 Brothers and sisters: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.

Of the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity (love), it seems the virtue of hope tends to get short-shrift. We hear a lot more sermons and soundbites on faith and love, and hardly any ink is spilled on the virtue of hope. Maybe that’s one reason on November 30, 2007 Pope Benedict XVI felt the need to write a lengthy encyclical on the virtue of hope called “Spe salvi” which is Latin and means “in hope we are saved.” That’s a quotation from Romans 8:24, taken from our first reading today. The fundamental thesis of the pope’s letter on hope can be summed up in this one line: “the one who hopes lives differently” (no. 2). To illustrate the radical difference living with hope makes, Benedict related the story of a Sudanese saint canonized by his predecessor, Pope Saint John Paul II.

The pope emeritus wrote: “I am thinking of the African Josephine Bahkita, canonized by Pope John Paul II. She was born around 1869 – she herself did not know the precise date – in Darfur in Sudan. At the age of nine she was kidnapped by slave-traders, beaten till she bled, and sold five times in the slave-markets of Sudan. Eventually she found herself working as a slave for the mother and the wife of a general, and there she was flogged every day till she bled; as a result of this she bore 144 scars throughout her life.

“Finally, in 1882, she was bought by an Italian merchant for the Italian consul Callisto Legnani, who returned to Italy as the Mahdists advanced. Here, after terrifying ‘masters’ had owned her up to that point Bakhita came to know a totally different kind of ‘master’ – in Venetian dialect, which she was now learning, she used the name ‘paron’ for the living God, the God of Jesus Christ.” Think of the word “paron” as the equivalent of the Spanish word “patron” meaning “bossman.” Some Mexican restaurants are called “Patron.”

The pope continued: “Up to that time she had known only masters who despised and maltreated her, or at best considered her a useful slave. Now, however, she heard there is a ‘paron’ above all masters, the Lord of all lords, and that this Lord is good, goodness in person. She came to know that this Lord even knew her, that he created her – that he actually loved her. She, too, was loved, by none other than the supreme ‘Paron,’ before whom all other masters are themselves no more than lowly servants. She was known and loved and she was awaited…Now she had ‘hope’ – no longer simply the modest hope of finding a master who would be less cruel, but the great hope: ‘I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me, I am awaited by this Lord. And so my life is good.’

“On 9 January 1890, she was baptized and confirmed and received her first Holy Communion from the hands of the Patriarch of Venice. On 8 December 1896, in Verona, she took her vows in the Congregation of the Canossian Sisters and from that time onward, besides her work in the sacristy and in the porter’s lodge in the convent, she made several journeys around Italy in order to promote the missions: the liberation that she had received through her encounter with the God of Jesus Christ, she felt had to be extended, it had to be handed on to others, to the greatest possible number of people…this hope had to reach many, to reach everybody.” As I was reading the pope’s encyclical, it seemed the Holy Father, too, felt the same urgency to spread the spirit of hope in order to reach many, in order to reach everybody. Why? Well, when our hope is rooted in God, we live differently.

The phrase that jumped out at me in the pope’s writing was the contrast between a “modest hope” and a “great hope.” That’s what I would like you to take with you today and chew on. Ask yourself: do I live with merely a modest hope of meager happiness and fulfillment, or do I harbor a great hope in my heart for infinite happiness and satisfaction? Sometimes the difficulties of life beat us down like the blows of the masters beat down the spirit of Saint Bahkita. That is until she found a new Paron, namely, Jesus Christ, in whom Bakhita found a great hope.

My friends, I would suggest to you our hopes will only reach as high as the bossman, the paron, the patron, we are working for. What do I mean? If those you are trying to please are on earth, then your hope will be earthly. But if the One you are trying to please is in heaven, then your hope will reach as high as heaven, where the One who loves is in waiting for us. The greatness of our hope is always bound up with the greatness of our Bossman.

Praised be Jesus Christ!