This week, I have been mulling over a quote a colleague in East Jerusalem shared with me on Facebook: St. Augustine is said to have written, “Hope has two beautiful daughters: Their names are anger and courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”
This was in the context of the daily challenges faced by nearly everyone in his community. My friend said that without anger and courage, hope is merely a vague sense of optimism. This got me thinking because I am generally an optimistic and hopeful person. I have a conviction that, in the words of Julian of Norwich, with “All shall be will and every manner of thing shall be well.”
The question, though, is how do we get from here to there? Augustine moves us from merely expecting to actively participating. Hope in the midst of a dark situation means not just being angry at the injustice, but also taking steps to do something about it. Indeed, simply being angry leaves us in a dark place that can be all-consuming and lead to despair.
Taking steps to address that which pierces our consciences and souls takes us to a place of empowerment and the ability to make a difference, perhaps globally, or more likely, locally, even if just in our own small piece of the universe. A difference is still a difference.
I thought about Hope and her daughters Anger and Courage as I previewed the documentary The Philadelphia Eleven that we will show on February 23 in Crossroads Hall. The first women to be ordained priests had hope and lived into their hope. They did not rest in their anger at their exclusion from ordained ministry. Rather, they kept moving forward - with no assurances of success - to eventually be ordained and then be recognized as priests in Christ’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
Indeed, as they moved forward through discernment, education, and formation, they did so with intentionality and purpose, but not with outrage. The outrage came from those who opposed them (and the outrage was some of the most vicious things an Episcopalian has said or done to another in the history of our church). Yet, their courage kept moving them forward. And because of the actions of eleven individual people who eventually connected with one another, the entire character and understanding of the Episcopal - and worldwide Anglicanism - has changed, from who we include to how we exercise leadership.
As I reflect more on Hope, and her offspring Anger and Courage, I think that Anger is not so much an emotion as it is a dissatisfaction at the way things are, a dissatisfaction that can leave us with the status quo while wishing that somebody does something. That dissatisfaction becomes a motivating factor that leads us to act - to take courageous steps to change and to live into the vision of what we believe Christ holds out for us.
Ultimately, the life of Faith is not a life of waiting for things to happen, but a life fueled by the promise the Gospel gives us and actions we take to live into that promise. Faith is never passive, always active, and depends as much on our hands as our heart.
We lived into hope when dissatisfaction with the way things are led us to take the courageous steps to Build Crossroads. We had two false starts over twenty years, and at times it certainly seemed hopeless - a project beyond our reach - but we kept courageously seeking in response to our dissatisfaction and God opened the way.
A person struggling with a personal challenge lives into hope when dissatisfaction with their status quo leads them to take courageous steps to live toward new wholeness.
How do we live into hope today? Start by asking, What is pricking my conscience now? What is creating dissatisfaction? Where might I be feeling anger that if left alone carries me downward, but if acted upon can create change? Asking these questions ourselves, holding them before God, and sharing them with our faith community and our allies can create space for new opportunities to emerge that open the way to make our deepest longings a bit more real.
Hope, Anger, and Courage