Heartspace for Hope is a series of monthly articles by Rev. Fr. Pachomius Ma. San Juan, OSB, meant to accompany the 2025 Jubilee year with reflections on its theme of hope.

This is its first installment:

Inspired by hope

I decided to do something different in anticipation of 2025. Instead of the usual resolutions I would normally list down whenever a new year began, I opted to come up with a Hope List.

Inspired by the Jubilee Year’s theme, Pilgrims of Hope, I feel I need to bring this theme closer to concrete and everyday realities, that is, my life, the world, relationships, society, health, economics, faith.

Here are some of the things I hope for. At best, these are my hopes for the future:

A better world

I want a world that is founded on human dignity and respect, a world in which people come first, in which principles and policies support people.

I want justice for all where the guilty are rounded up by the long arm of justice.

I want a world in which different beliefs outside the Christian consciousness are valued as valid channels to encounter the divine.

I want a world in which diversity and variety are celebrated so that there is peace and harmony in the community of nations.

I want a world in which we face and learn form the past with its mistakes and failures so that we can do better and be better.

I want a world in which everyone has employment and educational opportunities, access to healthcare, risk-free and proper housing, food on every table.

I want a world in which I am not the center, that I am a part of a community of shared needs, concerns, sorrows, hopes, dreams, that each one matters as much as myself.

Love in the context of faith

Ultimately, my list became a conscience examen, a life review of sorts in which the back-to-back commandment of love (of God and neighbor) provided the backdrop.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

These are the two commandments on which everything else hangs.

This is more than our feelings or emotions or affection for God and one another. It is all about decision and choice, something we engage in every day.

Every day we choose choose to love or not to love.

Look around and observe what is happening in our country and world today. I am not sure the commandments mean anything at all or are being lived at all. If we did and if we do, wouldn’t we be in a better place?

Today’s reality

There is a lot to complain about these days. The daily news continue to publish a buffet of outrage. I promise, you will be angry in no time. Why do we seem more energized by blame, name-calling, finger-pointing? The growing, increasing, escalating anger and hatred is alarming.

Love God, Jesus says. But what is it that I love when I say I love God? We say this all the time, but is it real? Has God remained our first love? If He still is, are His concerns, dreams and hopes for the world ours, too?

This maxim has remained ever fresh and to date: “We love others best when we love God first and most.” Love your neighbor, Jesus says. We value this teaching and it completes the tandem of love. It is something I preach about a lot. Yet how could I possibly know if people hurt or know their hopes and needs when I am distant, detached, dispassionate?

It is a pity these two commandments have become all-time favorites, having been overplayed, and how now, the duo is just plain familiar and commonplace.

We can soften the Lord’s words to the point they no longer challenge and empower us to see and live differently. That is just more blah, blah, blah, and we have got more than enough of that already.

A call to true love

One of the things I know about myself is that I can move mountains, take a bullet, so to speak, for the things, causes and people that really matter.

And regardless of how much I have, I will never have enough time, resources and energy for the things I am indifferent to and dispassionate about.

That is not love. I am not talking about the quantity of my hours or resources but the quality and shape of my commitments.

The love Jesus speaks about is all or nothing. We love God first or not at all. We love everyone or no one. We cannot love only up to a certain point, under certain conditions, to a certain extent. The mark of really loving someone or something is unconditionality and excess, engagement and commitment, fire and passion.

Where is that love in our life today? We love sometimes but not all the time.

Who is the recipient of that love and who is not? We love some people but not others.

Jesus is not talking about love as a feeling. Jesus is talking about an action, a decision, a choice. Love is a verb.

Love’s hope in a troubled world

Love is having a hard time in our world today. What is love’s hope amidst the violence of war, racial divide, tragedy of all shapes and heartbreak?

We are love’s hope in the world today. In my spiritual reading I came across a phrase being spoken by the Lord to someone in deep prayer while navigating the ocean of interior turmoil, There is no heart you hate that does not have me within it. It was a bit of a wake-up call: be careful who you let yourself hate – you might discover God within.

In silence, the voice of anger is heard, the fears and hurts rise to the surface, and the presence of God reveals the love of God within you and the people you are mad at. Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them and they bless you, the giver. What are we waiting for?