Lenten Walk 2: Ephesians Ch. 1

"May the eyes of [your] hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe." (Eph. 1:18-19)


Hope.

The Hope that I have in Jesus, in the teachings of the Catholic Church, in my belief in the existence of an all-loving, all-good God who desires relationship with us.

That Hope is getting me through this rather more-difficult-than-usual week.

My sister had surgery this week, and is waiting results to see whether or not the mass removed from her abdomen is malignant. As if that were not enough, she has suspicious lumps in both of her breasts which need to be biopsied as soon as her body has recovered from Wednesday's surgery. She is the mother of two young boys (ages 6 and almost-8), a wife, the manager of a doctor's office, and the oldest of my younger 3 sisters.

My prayers all week have been filled with thoughts and images of her. I am worried about her health, about what the test results might mean, about how she and her husband will manage if she needs extensive treatment. But, mostly, I am worried because she is living without the Hope that carries me through each day.

I've been there. When Princess was an infant, she became very ill and needed emergency surgery. My faith was nearly non-existent at the time. We went through that trial without the support, the prayers, and the hope we didn't know we needed. The next time, 16 months later, when she needed repeat surgeries, we were on our way back to God, and found some strength in prayer.

These days, I do very little without prayer. I start and end my days with prayer, and I take such strength from believing in the Hope promised in Ephesians... in the surpassing power of God, the riches of His glory, the magnitude of His grace.

God, who can bring good out of evil. God, who can shine light in the deepest dark. God, who created all from nothing. God, who loves so deeply that He chose to live this life... to feel pain, hunger, sweat, heartbreak, anger, exhaustion. In this God, I hope.

I hope.

I pray.

And I pray most that He will find a way to bring some good from this dark time in my sister's life, that she and her husband will draw closer to each other and to God, that they will find their way back to the Hope.