Pablo Richard: Reconstruct Life and Hope

Home » Meditations » Meditations » Pablo Richard: Reconstruct Life and Hope

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming. 1 Peter 1:13

“Today we need more than ever to reconstruct life and hope, especially among the most needy. Hope is not only a theological virtue but also a strategic orientation, a methodology, an inspiration, and a force in the search for alternatives where there is life for all. In today’s system of domination we feel beaten down by disintegration, fragmentation, the crisis of values, the destruction of social relations, violence, and corruption. Traditional institutions such as the family, the state, and democracy are in crisis. An economic and technological model that excludes the majority and destroys nature is imposed upon us.

Globalization with idolatrous and destructive characteristics emerges. Many are submerged in hopelessness, confusion, and spiritual disintegration. Others look for salvation through flight to an illusory world or through total submission to the power of law and dogma that repress internally all theological and spiritual creativity and destroy or ignore the dimension of utopia, of the Spirit, and of freedom in the construction of the reign of God. The popular reading of the Bible enables us to resist all these forces of death, and at the same time, it enables us to build pathways of life and hope.”

Pablo Richard in God’s Economy: Biblical Studies from Latin America edited by Ross and Gloria Kinsler (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005) xix.

My readings this week will come from Latin American voices as I will be serving on a GTP trip to Guatemala ministering with our partner there G2G. When this meditations posts, I will have just boarded my flight.

Before I comment on this post, if you want to guess which puppy has been given the name, Grace St. Catherine, let me know. A remarkable number of people guessed correctly yesterday. Too many to reply too. I’m working on it.

It was as if Grace pursued and picked us. Speaking of grace, today’s Scripture reminds us to set our hope on the grace of Jesus Christ. To set our hope is to abandon worldly thinking to “reconstruct life and hope” for us and those around us.

This Guatemala trip has four aims. While I won’t get into all of them here, one is to help reconstruct hope and life by providing biblical teaching coupled with practical tools. This is needed globally, and especially among the poor.

If you think of classic generosity examples in Scripture, like the Good Samaritan for example, the dispenser of blessing did not send help, he or she came. That person met others where they were and aided them in rebuilding what is broken.

I’d appreciate your prayers for a fruitful week. Let me know if you want my trip itinerary for prayer. And look around you. Ask God who is “submerged in hopelessness, confusion, and spiritual disintegration.”

While generosity may appear as giving money, it also includes moving toward the broken with love and helping them reconstruct life and hope under God’s reign.

Spirit, help us do this. Jesus, hear our prayer for the glory of God, the Father. Amen.