Hope Is What You Do
Do you ever ‘feel’ hopeless? Faced with some of our world’s most intractable and complex problems I believe many of us frequently do.
A few weeks I attended a seminar with the Dean of the Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem, Richard Sewell. He spoke of his experience 2 years ago, of first hearing of the horrific October 7th attacks, his own fear when missiles were being fired towards Jerusalem, his deep shock at hearing that the Anglican hospital in Gaza had been one of the first to be bombed, and the endless subsequent repercussions.
Not surprisingly, one of the questions asked was; ‘How do you carry on in the face of all is happening?’ ‘Giving up’ he said, is a luxury’. He could return to England, but for his Palestinian Christian colleagues this is their life. They cannot ‘give up’ – they have to just keep living as best they can. ‘Hope’, he said, ‘is what we do.’
I was struck by that phrase. Hope that is just about feelings doesn’t really mean so very much. Hope is about getting on and doing whatever you can, even if you don’t ‘feel’ it. For example, the Dean’s wife worked for an organisation supporting disabled Palestinian children which still had staff continuing to function in Gaza. Hope is what those Palestinians working with disabled children in Gaza are doing. Is their work ending the war? No – but their dedication demonstrates and witnesses that there is still room for kindness, compassion and care for the weakest even in a place that feels like hell. Hope is what you do.
Another example is the Bethlehem Care and Hospice Trust, a Sheffield charity launched after an urgent request from the Christian Community in Bethlehem. It is the only official palliative-care provider in the Palestinian territories and now their team of nurses has made 3,200 home visits, even as they negotiate the 198 new checkpoints which have sprung up around Bethlehem. Surely how someone dies, someone who is old or sick already, becomes less important when thousands are being killed? No – how someone dies, how each and every human being dies, always matters, and the perseverance of those nurses affirms that powerfully. Hope is what we do!
The Dean of Jerusalem summed up his reflections with these words; ‘Do the deeds of love in whatever ways you can.’
Giving up is a luxury that none of us can afford.
Revd Kate McFarlane