WeIn the second reading of today’s Mass, my friends, St. Peter flat out says “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.”

That’s more powerful and sustaining than we often stop to appreciate.

Why?  Because hope gives us a future. Hope gives us the prospect of relief from a bad situation. Hope gives us the anticipation of better tomorrows.

So what would be your response to someone who asks you why you have the virtue of hope in your lives?

If you’re feeling down and out, depressed and discouraged, you might say that you have no hope and furthermore, you see no evidence that leads you to seek and find any hope for your tomorrows.

That’s really bottoming-out, isn’t it? That’s really just vegetating rather than living.

Pope Benedict, in his visit to us the week before last, said from the beginning that he came to America just to bring us hope and some fatherly direction, but mainly hope.

And time and again throughout his talks to all those different audiences, Pope Benedict kept up his underlying theme that hope is found in our roots.

He spoke to President Bush about the need to appreciate the Judeo-Christian principles upon which our country was founded and our Constitution written as we forge into the future striving to bring justice and peace to an ever-troubled world.

He told college and university presidents to take their institutions back to their roots and ensure that they faithfully teach the traditions of the gospel’s Good News.

He urged the United Nations’ delegates to recall how and why the UN was established so that diplomacy would replace destruction of human lives, and that they should make that process work by giving all members equal voices without the super-powers vetoing.

Benedict called us priests, deacons, and religious to re-confirm our commitments to our vocations and simply do the best we can do, and that will go a long way in restoring our integrity.

He reminded young Americans that God the Father made them to take their places in His vast family here on earth, using their skills, talents, abilities, and energies in such ways that they become instruments of His presence and mercy to one another.

In retrospect, the Holy Father sure did give us a lot of hope, and a lot of reasons for hope, as St. Peter calls for in our second reading for today.

On a more individual and personal level, when we strive to explain why we should and do have hope,

We need to remember the story of creation in the Book of Genesis, and how God made all things for a purpose.

Then we can jump to the Book of Isaiah ch. 49, and find the consoling words from God that even should a mother ever do such an unnatural thing as to forget her child, He will never forget us because we are carved in the palms of His loving hands.

Then we hear in today’s Gospel that Jesus loves us orphans, and that brings us a lot of hope.

And also we have to acknowledge our seven sacraments which keep us in touch with our God for Whom all things are possible, and that sure brings us a lot of hope in the midst of life’s struggles.

Finally we have to recall how many times in the Bible, about 300 times, God sends His angels to us to guard and protect us, and that gives us great hope, as well; and we need to pray to them every day…

So those are some pretty solid explanations for why we have hope for the future in our lives, both personally and collectively.

As Pope Benedict said in his recent and second encyclical letter: “The dark door of the future has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; The one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.”

And for all of us, that new life starts with the morning of each new day that God gives us.

“Explaining our hope,” as St. Peter calls us to do, this 6th Sunday of Easter.

       Thank you.