The letter to the Hebrews presents us with a powerful image of God’s word, “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.” It is God’s word from scripture that consoles and challenges us, that invites us to open up hearts, to see ourselves as we really are – a combination of weaknesses and strengths. We learned God’s word first from our parents and in religion class. Then as adults we learned to nurture a prayer life, to listen to the homilies at Mass, to read spiritual material and to participate in retreats. The first reading from Wisdom speaks about the value of God’s word: “all gold is but a little sand in her sight, and silver will be accounted as clay before her…I chose to have her rather than light, because her radiance never ceases.”

God’s word was made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the Word. He is the Light of the World. In today’s Gospel, Jesus both comforts and challenges us. In his conversation with the man who seeks the path to eternal life, Jesus reminds him about following the commandments of the Mosaic Law. When the man says that he has kept the commandments since his youth, we learn something very comforting, that Jesus looked at him and “loved him.” To be loved by Jesus! What an immense gift! That is what we all long for in the deepest part of our hearts.

Then comes the challenge, presented by Jesus both to that man and to us. Jesus invites us to sell all we have, give it to the poor, and follow him. Follow him in trust and in detachment from any worldly good or prestige. He goes on to propose a radical opposition between riches and the kingdom of God. Riches impede our entry into the kingdom. Elsewhere Jesus declares, “‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6.24).

The disciples are dismayed. “Then who can be saved?” they say. Who can live up to such a challenge? Jesus then offers two great consolations. First, he tells us that “for God all things are possible.” Placing our faith in God and trusting that God will answer and help us, the impossible can become possible. Secondly, when we are willing to give up our attachments, even our attachment to family and friends whom we love, we gain much more; we gain a large community of sisters and brothers who follow Jesus, who seek to build his kingdom of justice and peace.

The readings invite us to examine our lives. Do we read scripture and let God’s word penetrate our hearts? Do we listen to Jesus, the Word incarnate, by taking time to pray each day? What are our worldly attachments? What are our riches? Are we really willing to let go of these and follow him, radically, into the light of love and service to our sisters and brothers, especially the poor and suffering? When we are discouraged, we can remember the words of Jesus: “for God all things are possible.”

For many years, I served people in poor rural communities in the Amazon region of Brazil as part of a pastoral team. In community meetings, we would often hear of the domestic violence suffered by women at the hands of their husbands, who usually engaged in excessive drinking. God does not want us to live with violence. Instead, God invites us to respect and love each other, especially in the union of marriage, where the two “become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

As we celebrated Mass with the communities, we would reflect with the people on this reading from Genesis and how it might apply to their lives. In the cultural language of Genesis, woman is created from one of the man’s ribs – not from his head or his foot – to be a companion to the man. She is like his rib, close to his heart, at his side, working and sharing. The man realizes that she is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” They are part of each other.

We also presented to the communities the other reading from Genesis where God created man and woman at the same time. “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them” (Genesis 1.27). This account underlines the equality of man and woman before God, of the human dignity of each gender. In many societies, it is women who often suffer violence, both physical and psychological, at the hands of men. This is not living in the image of God, the Divine image we are called to reflect. All violence must cease. God is love and we are called to love.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus addresses the legalistic challenge of the Pharisees concerning divorce. Jesus reaffirms the union of the man and woman, and goes further by pointing to the eternal aspect of the union: “what God has joined together, let no one separate.” This is a lofty ideal! How often couples face challenges in their marriage. Sometimes these challenges are insurmountable. The call by Jesus today is to take our vocation seriously, whether it be marriage, or priesthood, or religious life, or the single life. It is a call to fidelity, to enter our commitment with a loving heart that is open to live the commitment for eternity.

Jesus also calls us to be like children: “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” Children are spontaneous, innocent, trusting, joyful, playful, ready to cry and ready to laugh. These are the qualities we are invited to embrace as we journey in life, building the kingdom here on earth, hoping and trusting in its eternity. In doing so, our hope is that, as the letter to the Hebrews states, Jesus will call us his “brothers and sisters.”

In this Gospel, Jesus presents two important teachings meant to “prune” us, his disciples. First, he addresses the narrow-mindedness of the disciples. They wished to stop a person not part of their group who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name. Their attitude is paralleled by Moses’ followers who wished to prohibit Eldad and Medad from prophesying because they had remained in the camp rather than enter the tent. Jesus challenges this attitude, saying that “Whoever is not against us if for us.” God’s spirit of prophesy and healing does not belong to a small select group. It is the Holy Spirit that works through all who are rooted in love, compassion and thirst for justice.

Next, Jesus warns us about becoming obstacles. He radically suggests that if our hand, or our foot, or our eye should cause us to stumble, we should cut them off. Better to enter eternal life maimed than to be “whole” and cast out from God’s love. These sayings invite us to examine our behaviour. What work do we do with our hands? Do we work to help others, or do our hands work only for our own monetary gain? Where do our feet take us? Do they take us to visit the sick and the prisoners, to the church or to community meetings? Or do our feet take us only to shopping malls, or to questionable forms of entertainment? Do we use our eyes to look for the poor to befriend them? Or do we look only to the rich, hoping to gain influence? Do we use our eyes for prayer and education, or do we waste too much time watching television and surfing the internet? Theses sayings of Jesus invite us to make choices using our very bodies – our eyes, hands and feet – to see and serve the poor, rather than seeking self-interest.

Finally, St. James speaks very strongly about the futility of riches and the injustice of oppression. He warns that “…the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts,” recalling words God spoke to Moses, “‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings…’” (Exodus 3.7). God hears our suffering, especially that of people who live in abject misery and oppression. God responds through Jesus, the Son, who calls us to freedom and to seek peace and justice. We, his Church, are the eyes, hearts, hands and feet that serve Jesus, who lives in our sisters and brothers.

God’s word today calls us to be open to the Spirit working in all who do good, to examine our lives so that we do not become obstacles to others, and to live in solidarity with the poor.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. For some time now, the stores have been decorated for Christmas and they are advertising Christmas merchandise.

The stores know that we are always looking ahead to something. They know that our lives are oriented towards the future and they know how to capitalize on our orientation to the future. Even before Christmas Day, they offer us a Boxing Day Sale. The snow will still be on the ground when they begin to advertise spring merchandise. The leaves will barely appear on the trees when the stores will begin to advertise summer merchandise. At the beginning of August, the merchants will introduce back-to-school merchandise. Then it will be fall clothing. Then it’s back to Christmas.

We are always looking ahead to something. But are we looking ahead with hope?

Hope is not wishful thinking. Buying a lottery ticket is wishful thinking.

Hope is not wishful thinking. Nor is hope positive thinking. One of the best-selling books of all time is Norman Vincent Peal’s The Power of Positive Thinking. Since it was first published in 1952, The Power of Positive Thinking has sold five million copies. However, in 2009, Barbara Ehrenreich released a book entitled Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. Ms. Ehrenreich maintains that positive thinking prevents Americans from acknowledging the possibility of negative outcomes. She attributes, for example, the financial crisis of 2008 – from which the world economy is still suffering the effects – to the “positive thinking” of the business community who never considered the possibility that people might default on their mortgages.

Hope is not positive thinking. Nor is hope optimism. Optimism is better for our emotional and physical health than pessimism is. It’s nice to be around optimists instead of pessimists. But what do optimists do when bad things happen – as inevitably they do now and then?

Optimism is unable to deal with the real world of disappointment. Hope, on the other hand, has experienced disappointment and is ready to meet it again.

Hope is not optimism. Both optimism and hope look to the future. But optimism is anchored in the future which we will create; hope is anchored in the future which God will create. Hope is anchored in the power of God and not our own.

Ever since the eighteenth century, the Western world has been suffering from the illusion of continuous progress. Science and technology have enabled humanity to do amazing things. But the deeper problems of humanity resist scientific solutions.

The credo of the Enlightenment was “Knowledge is power.” But the power of knowledge is overrated. Science and technology are unable to solve the persistent problems of the world – problems like inequality, war, inter-racial and interreligious conflict, and the destruction of the environment. These issues and others are beyond our power to resolve.

Optimism is anchored in the future which we will create. Hope is anchored in the future which God will create. Hope is based on God’s promise that life and goodness will ultimately triumph over death and evil, and that truth and love will ultimately win. But hope is not blind. Hope is not blind to the evil in the world. Hope is not blind to the harsh realities of the world.

The prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading is not blind to the harsh realities of his time. The reality is that the Israelites have been living in exile in Babylon for many years. They are losing hope that they will ever see Jerusalem again. Isaiah is not blind to the harsh reality of exile, but he refuses to be bound by the present. He proclaims that God’s people have a future – a future which God will create. Isaiah proclaims that God will bring His people home.

Like Isaiah, John the Baptist proclaims that God’s people have a future which God Himself will create. He announces the coming of One who will separate the good from the evil once and for all and who will create a new humanity.

And so where is this new humanity? It’s us! The Christian community is far from perfect. We stand in need of continuous conversion to Jesus. But Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is among us (Luke 17.21). It’s among us who strive to live our lives according to the teaching of Jesus. Our acts of mercy and kindness, our commitment to others, our efforts to make this world a better place are all signs of the new humanity which God is creating.

The late Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change that you want to see in the world.” We are the change that God wants to see in the world.

Hope is anchored in the future. But it lives in the present.