Thinking Anew: Keeping the flame of hope alive

Tomorrow is the third anniversary of the downing of Ukraine Airlines Flight 752 killing all 176 passengers. It is said that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were responsible for the attack on the Canada-bound flight.

Among the victims were the wife and nine-year-old daughter of Hamed Esmaeilion. Governments have been accused of not doing enough to bring those responsible to justice but in a recent interview Hamed Esmaeilion said that his wife and child will never receive justice because he does not believe in an afterlife; for him they are beyond justice.

Epiphany, the season of light, takes us beyond the sentiment and nostalgia that characterises Christmas for many, to the recognition that Jesus the Christ is the assurance of God with us; that we can face the future calmly and with confidence even in the bad times, a belief expressed by the 17th-century hymn writer Katharina Von Schlegel: “Be still, my soul; the Lord is on your side; bear patiently the cross of grief or pain; leave to your God to order and provide; in ev’ry change he faithful will remain. Be still, my soul; your best, your heav’nly friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.”

In tomorrow’s readings a prophetic passage from Isaiah 42 reminds us we are not in charge. “Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it”. We are then told that there is a moral dimension to all of creation: “I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” We are told that this will be a hands-on operation by “my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” Tomorrow’s gospel reading, identifies Jesus as that servant “with whom (God is) well pleased” and for whom justice is a priority.

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A reading from Acts informs us that the works of justice are already under way: “That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem.” It is clear from these readings that the Christian mission is not some neat package of “churchy” things – but rather a call to the transformation of a troubled, fractured world into a community where fairness and justice are available to all and evil is undone.

But where does that leave our grieving Hamed Esmaeilion who has lost his wife and child and has no hope? For the Christian, Jesus Christ has given the answer in the Easter story by demonstrating that however cruel and unjust the world may be there is a beyond dimension where God reigns and that the kingdom we pray for in the Lord’s prayer is a reality. Fr Hans Küng believed that this is where evil will be overcome, where the poor, the hungry, those who weep and those who are downtrodden will finally come into their own. Where pain, suffering and death will have an end. “It will therefore be a kingdom – wholly as the prophets foretold – of absolute righteousness, of unsurpassable freedom, of dauntless love, of universal reconciliation, of everlasting peace. In this sense therefore it will be the time of salvation, of fulfilment, of consummation, of God’s presence: the absolute future.”

The church has perhaps no greater responsibility than to keep the flame of hope alive for those, who, like Hamed Esmaeilion have no hope and for whom tomorrow’s anniversary will bring such painful memories.