Portfolio of Illustrations by Fritz Eichenberg published in the Catholic Worker from 1949 to 1982 – Number ii
Psalm72: 11-19
Matthew 1: 18-25
eremiah 23: 5-8
Our hope and joy are found in knowing God is always with us, generation after generation (Matt 1: 18-25), in knowing that “…he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help.” (Ps 72: 12) Even in sadness and despair, there is a hope and joy that pervades, however dimly. We look forward to better times to come.
We give thanks and blessing knowing this (Ps 72: 18-19). We give thanks when delivered from our trial and even during our trials knowing we are not alone. Giving thanks and blessing during our trial is perhaps what actually delivers us from our trials. If we can give thanks to God for all that is, then we become co-creators with God and the trial is transformed into a platform for learning, growth, joy and love. It is not a perfect joy, even after delivery from the trial, for there is grief that never leaves us.
As Henri Nouwen says in Life of the Beloved, “Our life is a short time in expectation, a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment…. But this intimate experience in which every bit of life is touched by a bit of death can point us beyond …make us look forward in expectation to that day when our hearts will be filled with perfect joy, a joy that no one shall take away from us.”
Nancy Scott