Struggle & Hope

Struggle & Hope

“In the traditional view, struggle required one of two things: that what could not be endured be changed or that what could not be changed be endured. Missing from the lexicon of options was the notion that we ourselves could do more than endure: we could be transformed by the possibility of new beginnings.”

“[L]ife is a matrix of miracles punctuated by one interruption after the next.”

—Sister Joan Chittister, OSB

As Lent nears its close, I’m only ¼ through a book that has been testing my spirit for this season: Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope. The author, Joan D. Chittister, has been a spiritual companion for me and for many through her essays, books, appearances on Speaking of Faith and in the news as she lovingly-but-strongly disagrees with the Vatican and her tradition’s policies or speaks out for human rights. Sister Joan is one of the teachers I sometimes turn to for guidance, inspiration and renewal.

As a small book with brief chapters alternating between various challenges humans face (change, isolation, powerlessness, etc.) and the hope that can be born from those (conversion, independence, surrender, etc.), Scarred/Transformed seemed like something I could breeze through these several weeks of Lent—happily absorbing the final chapter, “Hope: The Resurrection of the Spirit,” at Easter. But the 4-6-page chapters have been so full and necessary that I’ve had to sit with each one like a meditation rather than simply read for information.

For me Sister Joan hit home as she began: “struggle, long a recognized factor in personal development and spiritual growth, has become one of the major spiritual problems of our time. Change – the shifting of life from one stable context to another – envelops us. Nothing seems fixed anymore – not theology, not culture, not institutions, not relationships, not family, not even my own sense of self…. [W]hat, if anything, is there inside us to carry us through this period of social and personal disorientation, of social and personal malaise, of social and personal relativism, not just to make the confusion bearable, but to vindicate the struggle?” (from pages 8 & 12).

Easter nears, and I’m neither certain of the answers nor done with the book—but I believe I have some sense of where my own hope emerges. As in the quote at the top, my life has known so many “miracles” and interruptions. Sister Joan is one of the miracles that I felt the desire to share with you. What are your own miracles? And are you currently in the midst of one of them, or a struggling interruption? Either way, may hope fill your spirit.