The phrase “Jesus is hope actualised” really jumped out at me as I was reading Dr Gerry Crete’s book Litanies of the Heart (p 146). He explains that through his traumatic suffering, death on the Cross, and Resurrection, Jesus reveals his identity as hope actualised.
This echoes Scripture and Church teaching, particularly where St John Paul II affirms that Jesus’ suffering and victory provide hope to humanity (Salvifici Doloris, 12).
This statement invites us to reflect on what it means for Jesus to be hope actualised in our lives.
The human experience is filled with trials, moments of suffering, and times when darkness seems overwhelming.
We face personal struggles, societal challenges, or even spiritual desolation. Yet, in all these situations, Jesus stands before us as the one in whom hope is not just an idea, but a reality, fully realised and made present.
The beauty of our faith lies in the fact that it is not based merely on abstract theological concepts, but on a person, Jesus Christ, who is living and active in our lives today.
How can we experience Jesus as “hope actualised” for our lives today, especially in places where we experience sin, trauma, and darkness? Our Gospel for the Healing of the Leper for this First Sunday of Lent in our Maronite liturgical calendar gives us the answer.
Mark shows us how Jesus is hope, saying: “While it was still very dark, Jesus got up…” (Mark 1:35) These words point to Jesus’ rising victorious over the darkness of death in his resurrection.
This phrase reminds us that Jesus does not wait for the light to break before he acts; rather, he moves even in the midst of darkness, bringing light where there was none. It is a reminder that no matter how deep our struggles, how heavy our burdens, or how consuming our trials, Jesus is already at work, bringing hope into our lives.
Then we are told that Simon Peter and his companions, and everyone, are searching for Jesus, including a leper, because Jesus is being recognised in his ministry as hope actualised, the remedy for despair, trauma, sin, and darkness.
The fact that people sought Jesus is important. It shows us that deep within every human heart is a longing for the hope that only he can provide. Whether it is through physical healing, spiritual renewal, or emotional restoration, people recognised in Jesus the answer to their deepest needs. Even the leper, an outcast of society, deemed unclean and untouchable, was searching for Jesus.
Mark then tells us that the leper comes to Jesus and kneels before him. He does not allow feelings of fear or shame or his sin to stop him from believing and turning to Jesus as his hope.
Then, with great surrender of himself to Jesus, he says, “If you choose, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40). These gestures and words of the leper are a sign to us of what repentance involves on our part to experience hope actualised through Jesus.
Jesus then “actualises” his hope in the leper by “stretching out his hand and touching him” (Mark 1:41). In Jewish law, touching a leper would make a person unclean. Yet, Jesus, who is hope actualised, is not bound by such limitations. Instead, his touch transforms. He does not become unclean; rather, the leper becomes clean.
From this touch, the leper is transformed from a person in trauma, uncleanliness, and despair to a proclaimer to others of the one who is hope actualised. We might say, in the words of the Jubilee theme, that he becomes a pilgrim of hope, witnessing to Jesus as a proclaiming disciple of hope to others.
His encounter with Jesus does not end with his healing; rather, it becomes a testimony to others. This is our call as well. When we experience the hope of Jesus in our lives, we are not meant to keep it to ourselves but to share it with those who are still searching.
We then can let our Lent be a time when hope is actualised in us by making time to: (1) Truly search for Jesus in dark and wounded places of our lives through daily time in prayer; (2) Be ready to repent and be touched and healed by Jesus in the Sacrament of Confession; and (3) Be renewed to be disciples who proclaim Jesus daily to those around us who need hope to be real and actualised in their lives.
Jesus, our hope, have mercy on us, that we may be true pilgrims of hope. Amen.
Msgr Shora Maree is the Episcopal Vicar for Youth in the Maronite Eparchy of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania, and parish priest of Christ the Redeemer, The Hills.