Hope is beautiful liturgy.

A non-Christian friend complained recently how difficult it is to maintain hope in "a post-capitalist world with so many people suffering". I would have offered reason for hope by pointing to an eternity of joy with Christ, which is ultimately more real than the frustrations of this life. However, as mentioned, my friend does not share the same hope found in Christ. This friend's plea inspired a few thoughts, mostly that the realization that faith really does make a difference in one's life.

The weak hope provided by material distractions does not (cannot) endure. A reliance on fleeting distractions for relief from one misery or another is a foolish expectation that terminates daily in disappointment. Faith in God, by contrast, illuminates. God illuminates the soul, the heart and the mind with His grace, His life poured out for the willing soul who opens his or her life in faith to the transcendent beauty, goodness and truth of God, through the word of God (Holy Scripture) and by encountering Jesus in the reception of the Holy Eucharist and other sacraments.

The beauty of the Ordinariate Mass, i.e., Divine Worship, provides worshippers life sustaining food for the soul. Which is to say, the Mass is Christ Present among us. When the Mass is offered with attention to the personality of Christ expressed in and through the details of the Mass, the continuous unfolding relationship of the various elements to the whole, the worshipper encounters Jesus on Jesus' terms. In pedagogical language, the learner encounters Jesus' Presence as he or she is able. Jesus is all things to all people; He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is able to reach each of us in a way that is tailored to our personal needs, timed or paced for our maximum benefit. Some of us thrill to the hearing of the word of God. Others have their imaginations excited through the art and architecture of the Liturgy - music, statuary, stained glass, etc. - which disposes us to the action of grace. We are moved to accept God through the finite creatures of art that stimulate us to open wide our hearts to the Source of truth, goodness and beauty. That is, God Who Himself possesses truth, goodness and beauty to an infinite degree.

None of us is God. We, each of us, can do more than merely survive this life. With God's help, we can do anything, God willing. Some of us have a small circle to which we must attend. Others have wider circles. (Be thankful you are not a pope nor a bishop!) We participate in the mission of Christ by being present to those closest to us. That is, those we encounter on a daily basis - in our homes, at work, on the street, etc. We bring Christ to others by attending to Jesus present in everyone we meet, even when - as Saint Teresa of Calcutta reminded us - Jesus appears in distressing disguise. Hospitality, then, is the charity made possible by the Holy Ghost illuminating our understanding, purifying our perception, and giving us His gifts to enable us to serve our brothers and sisters. The Ordinariate faithfully preserves the accompaniment of the brethren by acknowledging and celebrating the continuation of the Mass in the fellowship of hospitality that follows Mass. This charity of hospitality, inherited from centuries of Benedictine formation, is a hallmark of the Patrimonial spirituality preserved in the Personal Ordinariates established by the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

Hope, then, finds a home in the heart when a person is immersed in the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus Christ and in the community in which Christ is Present. Hope is nourished in and through the sacraments and God's holy word, in and through which He is present to us, speaking to us, purifying us and guiding us into His Way of peace and love. He is present to us when we suffer despair and loss. Our wounds open in us a place for Jesus to enter into our lives and to sustain us from within. When we kneel at the rail, and open our mouths to receive the Precious Body, we make ourselves vulnerable to receive the God Who makes Himself vulnerable by offering Himself as real food.

Let us be particularly mindful of those who made themselves vulnerable for our freedom, who died in the service of justice and peace, even in the midst of the devastation of war. This month of the holy souls is so very precious. This month is a fitting season to recall those who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars, in all conflicts between peace loving people and warmongers. The Requiem Mass invites us into the peace which only God can give. That peace is real; that peace is love for neighbour and enemy. That love is hope and freedom.

So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13:13