Andy Todd, Diocesan Secretary, has written this article for May editions of parish magazines.
In Samuel Beckett’s 1956 play, Waiting for Godot, two characters spend the entire time waiting for the arrival of a mysterious character called Godot who will sort out all their problems - but who never comes. It’s an unsettling read, like watching life on ‘pause’: “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.” (Beckett’s words – not mine!) What keeps the characters waiting? Is it hope?
I often hear people saying that they despair at what is reported in the News. Understandably, they talk of the need in contemporary society for hope. But all too often what passes for ‘hope’ seems more like the lame wishful-thinking of the characters in Beckett’s play – a vague optimism that something better is around the corner. That kind of thinking can simply lead to a passive acceptance of things as they are – ironically, not unlike despair.
But throughout history, true hope has been a consistent force for transformation. As the American writer Dale Carnegie recognized, “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying where there seemed to be no hope at all.” That is hope in action. Hope energises as well as bringing comfort.
For Christians, Easter is the focal point for all true hope: in the Easter story, out of the terrible wrong of the torture and murder of an innocent man, God brings good. Our hope is based, not on some vague belief that things will turn out alright in the end, nor in the longed-for arrival of some elusive “Godot” figure, but on the confidence that, in Christ, God has revealed Himself to be utterly, eternally ‘for’ us. Because of that, we can know that no situation is ever too far gone, nothing is beyond redemption. Even the challenges of global proportion. Even the brokenness of our own lives.
Although Easter Day is now behind us, the Church continues for these weeks to celebrate Easter Season, reminding us that we are and will always be Easter people. There is an urgent need for us as Easter people to tell stories of real hope – stories to energise and sustain our communities. So, whatever stories you tell in this Season, may many of them be hopeful ones!
