Fr. Bob
In the second reading from Romans 5 Paul reminds us that “Hope does not disappoint”. Ever have your heart set on something but when you get it, you’re disappointed that it’s not quite as great as you thought it’d be?
As a kid I had my heart set on getting a Schwin bike. But when I got it, I was disappointed that it was as “cool” as the bike the kid next door had. So yes, sometimes we’re left disappointed. But if we can put our hopes in the right things we’re never left disappointed.
After six years in the seminary I was feeling disappointed in myself. Was it that I wasn’t praying hard enough? Was it that I wasn’t good enough to be a priest? Whatever it was I was having my doubts. So, I left the seminary that spring not knowing if I’d return in the fall.
That summer I found myself in Snowmass Colorado clearing brush from the ski runs. One day I was assigned to work with a young guy with wire rim glasses who looked the double of John Lennon.
As we’re clearing brush he starts telling his story. It turns out he had been arrested by the FBI and was waiting trail for setting off an explosive device in the dean’s office at the University at Boulder, Colorado.
He was part of a of radical group that had turned to violence as their way of protesting the war in Vietnam. As he rants on, he rages about how blankety, blank, blank screwed up the system was and how they were to blame for the world’s problems. As he rages on I’m thinking, “This guy is stuck and if he can’t curb his anger, he’s going to implode.”
After a full hour of listening to him spue his disgust at the system he finally turns to me and says, “So, what about you? “What do you do?” I stammered a bit and finally say, “Ah, I’m in the seminary studying to be a priest.”
He goes ballistic. “Why the blankety, blank, plank, would you want to be a blankety, blank, blank priest?” Wow! I’m thinking, “I’m still not sure if I’m going to be a priest. But all I know is I don’t want to be like this guy.
That chance conversation day woke me up. If the world is going to change for the better, pessimism is not going to do it. Cynicism is not going to do it. Hate is not going to do it. What the world needs is people who care about others not just people who want to blame others for how bad things are.
Then it occurred to me, if being a priest is one way to bring more hope into the world maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all. It’s funny how God works. It took an angry young man who mocked religion to help me see the gift that our faith can be for our lives. With that nudge from the Holy Spirit, I returned to the seminary that fall and was ordained a few years later.
So, what is it that young people are looking for today? At the masses last weekend, I mentioned that young people are looking for a sense of belonging and a clear vision that gives purpose and meaning to their lives.
So yes, sometimes we’re left disappointed. Like me with my Schwin bike. Or like the “John Lennon” lookalike I met clearing brush that day.
But if we can put our hope in the right things we’re never left disappointed. My hope is that your experience in Confirmation can be that for you, that it can be the opportunity for you to find a sense of belonging and a clear vision that gives purpose and meaning to your lives. So, if “hope does not disappoint” give your “all” to growing in your faith and you will not be disappointed.