Lesson 3: Hope is never-dying, grow with it!
1 John 1:5 – 2:2; Matthew 2: 13-18
Hope cannot end, that would be a contradiction in terms! At times we give up, that is a sign of hopelessness. But where there is hope, there is no giving up, however it involves a lot of “letting go”! If the theme, day before yesterday was about witnessing through death and yesterday was witnessing through life, today it is witnessing through innocence! Innocence is an experience of letting go and we can learn it from the feast and the Word today.
The Word teaches us three ways of growing in innocence: the first, living in the light – to allow the Lord to shine through and not hiding anything before the truth; the second, acknowledging our sins – our shortcomings and our limits are to be acknowledged and not to be swept under the carpet or secretly groomed; and third, obeying without a second thought – when we know that something is God’s will not having second thoughts or alternative proposals but going ahead with it, letting go of everything else.
This innocence is not a simplistic ignorance, but a learned, well-informed, contemplated and discerned acknowledgement of the Lordship of the Lord and the Lord’s will. That acknowledgement, to the extent of not even looking back to lament on anything that has gone wrong, is knowing well that however bad things may get, the Lord has everything within his control. That hope is never-dying, never ending; it is an unceasing positive mindset, that is possible only for the innocents, only for children