by Roger Mock

Each week when I sit down to plan our weekly “OneSong” multi-faith music service, the first step is to choose a focus or theme. I’ve learned not to hem and haw over this if no obvious seasonal theme or religious observance presents itself, and just choose whatever comes to mind or catches my fancy from a list of possible themes. This week what came to mind was the word “hope.” And then I thought, “Well, maybe faith and hope. It looks a little lonely by itself.” Okay, a theme had arisen.

The word hope has particular significance in my family. It is the maiden name of my mother-in-law, who came from a line of Wisconsin Hopes, and the middle name of both my wife and my daughter. It’s a very strong word, is it not? A bulwark of sorts. St. Paul famously wrote that in the end there are only three things that will remain standing: Faith, Hope and Love. and though he concluded that “The greatest of these is Love,” the two remaining contenders still get their Olympic medals.

The other thing that resonated about the word hope for me right now has to do with the prevailing political climate. Need I say more? No, probably not. But I am holding onto hope with as firm a grip as I can manage at the moment.

So my next step was to find some illuminating readings and quotes on the topics of faith and hope, but especially hope. What I found took me rather by surprise. It seems that in the eyes of some thinkers, traditions and even spiritual luminaries, hope’s qualifications for even a bronze medal come into serious question.

For starters, let’s go back four centuries before St. Paul to the Tao Te Ching and it’s 13th chapter, which reads as follows:

Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.

What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.

What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don’t see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?

See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.

Did you notice who ended up on the platform in the end there and who didn’t?Not even a bronze for the Big H! Well, I thought, perhaps it’s a problem of translation. But then I came across these words from someone I believe to be among the greatest living spiritual teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh, who just celebrated his 90th birthday a few days ago. “Thay” wrote:

“We use hope to believe something better will happen in the future, that we will arrive at peace, or the Kingdom of God. Hope becomes a kind of obstacle. If you can refrain from hoping, you can bring yourself entirely into the present moment and discover the joy that is already there.”

Hope, an obstacle?? His startling thoughts were then further bolstered by Eckhard Tolle who wrote in his widely revered book The Power of Now, “Hope is what keeps you going, but hope keeps you focused on the future, and this continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now and therefore your unhappiness.”

Ouch. Are you guys serious? Our Hero is not only knocked off the Olympic platform, but maybe even a little bloodied by the fall, wouldn’t you say?

Well you know what? I’m not buying it. Yes, I hear truth in these words for sure. But here’s what it comes down to for me. There are hopes and there is Hope. I may have hopes that my preferred candidate wins in the upcoming election. I’m pretty sure she will. Pretty sure. I also have fears about the future whatever the outcome. Something not so pretty has been stirred up in the depths of the American psyche and it still must be faced and played out. And I can see a clear illustration right there of Lao Tzu’s ancient counsel: “Success is as dangerous as failure. Hope is as hollow as fear.” But I want to re-translate it this way: “Success is as dangerous as failure. Hopes are as hollow as fear.”

Do you see the difference? By “hopes” I mean specific wished-upon outcomes about the future. I hope I won’t get the flu this winter. I hope my muffler holds out a few more months. Now notice how Thich Naht Hanh starts out his quote: “We use hope to believe something better will happen in the future…” And it’s in this sense that we may actually misuse Hope.” When he cautions us to refrain from hoping, I read that as meaning “Do not misuse Hope. What then is this Hope? It seems inevitable that we turn to Emily Dickinson for further instruction at this juncture. You probably know at least the first line of this famous poem. Let’s read the whole thing:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

Yes! That little bird that remains unabashed amid life’s storms does indeed belong up there on our podium! We’re not talking about wavering, fluctuating hopes, we’re talking about something that, despite it’s seeming diminutive stature, is actually the true Compass of the Soul, always drawing us toward that magnetic North. It is very akin to Faith, it’s true. Martin Luther wrote that “There is so great affinity between faith and hope, that the one cannot be separate from the other.” Yet he went on to delineate the differences as he perceived them in a brief five-point treatise. What I take away from his thoughts is that Faith is more of the mind and of the understanding, whereas Hope is of the will and of the soul. Hope is what gets Faith through the storm. He spells that out clearly in his fourth point: “Faith is the beginning of life, before all tribulation; hope proceeds from tribulation.”

If we stick with our Compass, we’ll find it leading us through many a time of tribulation or gale. We’ll often be tempted to use the Compass to anticipate the momentary hoped-upon victories—this election, that muffler… That’s where we can get caught up in future prognostication and thus lose the present moment. And notice that an unwelcome companion has slipped in to the equation: fear. Fear that what we have pinned our hopes on won’t hold out. But true “capital H” Hope is right here in the Present Moment, unfettered by that dark companion. In fact, that’s where Hope is always leading us, to that calm center, to the Still Point of the turning world. If we keep heeding the song of that Bird, we needn’t be flummoxed by the twists and turns, the ditches and gullies on our journey north, and the hollowness of fear won’t impinge upon our peace.

I’ll leave you with this great little quote from everyone’s favorite monk, Thomas Merton:

“To hope is to risk frustration.
Make up your mind to risk frustration!”

Love and Light; Faith and Hope,
Roger