Star of Hope (Epiphany Sunday A)

When did giving hope become wrong?

I recall an episode of the TV series, “Honesto,” where a confrontation between Honesto’s adoptive mother (Lourdes) and her old father (Lemuel) highlights the value of giving hope. Lourdes is worried about the child’s (Honesto’s) persistent longing to know his own father whom he has not met since his birth. She is disturbed that some friends, like Diego who volunteers to act as Honesto’s father even for a day, are giving the child hope. Lourdes is gently confronted by the wise old Lemuel with this question: “Kailan ba naging masama ang magbigay ng pag-asa?” To this, Lourdes responds justifying her anxiety: “Kapag alam mong wala ng pag-asa!” But Lemuel knowingly looks at her daughter straight in her eyes and says something to this effect: “Palaging may pag-asa. Takot ka lang mawala sa ‘yo ang bata kapag magkita silang mag-ama.”

It’s never wrong to give and enkindle hope.  What is wrong is when we put off the remaining flickers of hope just because we are selfishly afraid and insecure concerning our personal interests. There is always hope. Hope is only gone when we allow ourselves to be overcome by our fatalistic resignation and our defeatist pessimism.

Picture grabbed from http://ph.images.search.yahoo.com

Star of Hope. In today’s gospel reading (Mt 2:1-12), a bright star, the star of hope for the people of Israel and of all nations, signified the birth of the King of the Jews as interpreted by the wise men from the East. These wise men followed the lead of the star and were brought to Jerusalem. They sought and found the newborn King in order to adore him for He is the long-awaited Messiah, the one who is to shepherd the people of Israel as prophesied and the people of all nations as now revealed to these gentiles from the East.

But one person was particularly troubled by the birth of the Messiah. Ironically, he who was the most powerful in the land of Israel was the most insecure of all—King Herod.  What represented as hope to all people was a threat to him. Hence, from that time on, Herod plotted to kill the newborn King.

Enemies of Hope: Fatalistic Resignation and Pessimism. Let us be aware that sometimes we are like Herod, and Lourdes, afraid to allow people to have hope. When people around us seem to have hope of becoming better in life, we pull them down with all our might. Courtesy of our crab mentality. We are sometimes consumed by our fear of being left behind. So we make sure that we are all together in our misery. Or perhaps, we infect people with our fatalistic resignation to life’s misery. We declare that our misery is our fate. There is no use striving hard because we are born to be poor, to be oppressed, and to be marginalized. It is God’s will anyway, so we might as well accept that we are going to be stuck into these deprivations for life. Or further still, we blow off any glimmer of hope with our defeatist pessimism. We just don’t admit that life is difficult; we further believe that life is absurd. Nothing in life is good and meaningful. We live with all the negativities we carry with us and we bring into this hell the people around us. What a pity! These can easily lead us to despair.

Seek the Lord of Hope. We pray that we do not fall into the trap of desperation. We ask for enlightenment  and some sparks of hope to allow us to see a meaningful way forward for our families and for the country amid the many social ills that beset our nation.  Let us shed off our Herodian complex and be the wise men from the East instead. In the darkest moments of our trials, let us not succumb to desperation but let us courageously journey to seek the light of Christ for He is our hope.  

Today’s feast of the Epiphany is a guarantee that God wills to reveal himself to those who seek him. He always sees to it that his people find him so that He may be their Lord and Savior most especially in these times of insurmountable hardships. With hope in our hearts then, we look forward to a year of fruitful rebuilding of peace and brotherhood among us.

Give Hope. It is never futile to give and enkindle hope. And our hope is in the Lord. Seek the Lord then as the wise men did. It is only when we have found the Lord and we carry him in our hearts that we can lead people from their darkest trials to the light of Christ. To those who are grappling in the dark, we all can be stars of hope. It is never wrong to give hope.