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"Hope in a Time of Exile"
 
A reading from the prophet Jeremiah:

Thus says the Lord: “Only after seventy years have passed for Babylon will I visit you and fulfill for you my promise to bring you back to this place. For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call to me, when you pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all you heart, you will find me with you, says the Lord, and I will change your lot. I will gather you together from all the nations and from all the places to which I have banished you, says the Lord, and bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.”

A former President ended his acceptance speech for nomination to be his party’s candidate with the line, “I still believe in a place called Hope.” Not only was it the name of the town in Arkansas where Bill Clinton was born, but, at the time, it represented his hope for the future of our country.

Well, years have passed since then, and whatever your politics or whatever your estimation of the realization of that hope, I think you’ll agree that hope needs to be kept alive in our hearts, no matter where we’re from, no matter what we do. Hope is what keeps us going when nothing else can.

And it’s a very biblical notion. As we hear today from Jeremiah, God extended hope to those in exile in Babylon that they would return to Jerusalem, their homeland, if only they had faith that restoration was possible, that God had not abandoned them. God had plans to give them a future full of hope. They needed only to grasp it.

A number of years ago, when my mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor, I remember how angry I was with God. My mother was only 50 years old. It didn’t seem fair. How could God do this? Why didn’t God prevent it?

I remember going for a run to clear my head and yelling at God about God’s seeming indifference. I screamed into the night air, “You fix this! Now!” Yeah, I know, it was a bit arrogant. In some ways, I think I had already lost hope before the ordeal had even kicked into high gear.

But, interestingly, not my mother. A woman of real faith, who had known her share of challenges in her life, my mother held on to hope from the very beginning. She didn’t cry. She didn’t break down. She said God would bring her through this okay. And she really believed it. My father and brother: they weren’t so sure. I, the priest son, wasn’t so sure. But my mother was.
And her faith and hope saw us through that traumatic ordeal with grace.

The only time there was a little crack in that armor was the morning they shaved her head for the surgery. When we went back into the room, there sat my now hairless mother in the bed, crying for the first time since this whole ordeal had begun. My father and brother looked at me…as if I the priest should know what to do at a time like this. So, I went to my mother’s bedside and began to try to shore her up—theologically.

I said, “Mother, you really can’t lose hope at this point. You’ve come this far. God is faithful and will see you through this. You’ve got to keep your faith. It will be all right.”

My mother stopped crying and looked at me and said, “Edward, I know all of that.”

And I said, “But you haven’t been this upset since we learned about this.”

And she looked at me and said, “I just paid $50.00 for that permanent!”

And we all laughed, including my mother. And the laughter in that hospital room that morning was holy because it uncovered the holiness of my mother for all of us to see. She really was that rooted in her faith. That filled with hope. And she passed on her faith and hope to the rest of us. Happily, the tumor was removed and these days my mother is enjoying retirement in Florida with my golf-obsessed father.

Now, I know it doesn’t always have a happy ending when we’re presented with such challenges.
And some of you have had circumstances in your lives where hope didn’t seem to be enough.
But I think that hope remains important no matter what the circumstances or the outcome, because often it changes us.

Hope is what gives a child born in poverty the possibility of a way out. I mean, look at Oprah Winfrey—not only her life—but now her school in South Africa for girls holding on to hope for a better future. Hope is what gives a disabled person the strength to fight against the odds. Look at Dr. Stephen Hawking and others committed to medical and scientific breakthroughs that can change lives. Hope is what gives someone who’s sick the incentive to get better. Look at Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and even my mother.

Hope is what gives more ordinary people, people you know, unheralded heroes, the strength to go on. Hope, along with faith and love are the only three things that endure, according to Saint Paul.

And so, what about your life? Maybe you find yourself despairing at times. Maybe you’re caught in a marriage that seems to be at a dead end. Or you’re having trouble with kids who seem to have total disregard for everything. Or find yourself unemployed or struggling financially. Or you’re lonely and just wanting someone to talk to. Wondering if there’s anyone out there for you. Maybe lost and just trying to find your way home again.

Well, if Scripture is any indication, you’re not alone. Today the prophet Jeremiah speaks to us in our circumstances of exile, in the same way he did to the people languishing in Babylon wanting to go home again.

And he tells us that God has plans to give us a future of hope: “When you call me, when you pray to me, I will listen to you. You will find me with you, and I will change your lot.” I don’t know about you, but I find comfort in those words. I find hope in them.

A few years ago I was sitting at a lunch counter in a restaurant attached to a golf course. I was reading the New York Times, just finishing my Greek salad, when a man with a familiar face walked in. Our eyes met and he passed me by, but then he turned around and he walked up to me. “Don’t I know you?” he said.

“No, Mr. President,” I replied, my voice shaking, “I don’t believe we’ve ever met.”

“What’s your name?” said Bill Clinton.

“Edward Beck,” I said.

“Oh, yes, Father Beck,” he said. “I read your book, “God Underneath.” I recognize you from your picture on the cover. I really enjoyed it. You’re doing great work. Keep it up.” And he shook my hand, turned and walked away.

All eyes in the restaurant were on me as I sat there dumbfounded. And, yes, you’ve guessed it: I, too, still believe in a place called Hope. Hope that anything is possible.

Conversation with Edward Beck

Lydia Talbot: A terrific message, Edward.

Edward Beck: Thank you.

Talbot: You say in your message that hope is what is still there when our worst fears have been realized or it is the thing that keeps us going when nothing else can. Your wonderful example of your loving mother, even with humor in the face of brain surgery, sustained by faith. What about your own personal journey to the priesthood? You’re a Passionist priest in New York. What are those moments of exile that you recall where hope has endured and gotten you through?

Beck: Well, sometimes, as I’m sure you might imagine, life as a priest has it’s ups and downs and it has in recent years especially with the whole scandal that went through the Catholic church. I think that God is in the midst of even all of that and the hope that we’re going to get through this and somehow we’re going to come out the other side better and stronger. And I think I needed that spark inside, that hope to say these are bad times in many ways but there is good here and good to come from this. It’s just a challenge to live that everyday.

Talbot: The kind of hope that’s grounded in God, not just wishful thinking or optimism.

Beck: Yeah. I think it’s that human spark.

Daniel Pawlus: I wanted to follow up on that, too. It’s so easy, it seems today, to be cynical. We have so much information going on. Where do you see hope in your work, in your retreats with people that you interact with? What do you access in yourself to go about the daily process of that?

Beck: Well, what I’m always amazed as I give retreats around the country in parishes and I preach at the weekend masses. I think, will anyone show up for the retreat? I’ve done the best I can to make this interesting and exciting. Sunday night I’m nervous, thinking I’m going to be here alone and suddenly all these people start to trickle in and the church is filled. And I think they could be doing anything else tonight, but they’re here for retreat because they are hungry spiritually. They want to grow in a deeper level, a deeper way with God. That gives me hope that I’m not in this alone, that there are people who really take hold in faith and want to deepen it. It’s just inspirational to me to see that.

Talbot: You are inspirational to all of us and the wider community, Edward. You are a maverick priest! You are immersed in media efforts, a television series, screenplays and TV pilots. What’s that about? What’s that connection between your ministry as a priest and the media?

Beck: I don’t know about maverick priest! I can see the headlines, “Maverick Priest”! That’s an interesting way to put it.

Talbot: Well, you’re doing an amazing kind of ministry.

Beck: I suppose it is in some ways, sure, to be involved in media. I’ve just really accepted the vision that we need to do this. What you do here, and we as a Catholic church and the other churches need to be involved in mass communication because that’s where people live today. They live on the internet, they live on the television, they live on the radio. Why not use that as an avenue to bring this good word and to bring this message? I can give retreats all over the country for a couple of years and never reach the people that I might reach on a television show. So we have to be conversant with that whole group, I think.

Pawlus: I couldn’t agree more. Some of the other faith traditions do the multimedia experience very well and I’ve seen their congregations grow exponentially because of that media outreach on a number of different levels. It’s fascinating to watch and, as a Catholic myself, great to hear you speak about wanting to move in that direction. We have such a tremendous tradition that we love, not fall back on but to help support us, and we need to take it into the 21st century. I think people like yourself are helping lead the way in that regard.

Beck: I do think other Christian denominations have really done that in a very good, informative way and we’re kind of lagging behind. Everyone remembers Fulton Sheen?

Pawlus: Yes.

Beck: But that was in the 1950s, right? And who has stepped up and replaced Fulton Sheen? Not to replace him, but to say this is a presence and a message that needs to be kept alive.

Talbot: I know you’re not going to give us the scoop on your screenplay.

Beck: Well, I’ll give you a little bit!

Talbot: Tell us what makes you want to be a screenplay writer. What’s that about?

Beck: After writing three books, the challenge was, what do I do next? And a lot of what I’ve seen is mass media taking hold, like “The Passion of the Christ.” Recently we had the movie “The Nativity.” Now these are studio produced films that are finding an audience. They are now going to make a movie of Anne Rice’s “Christ Out of Egypt,” with a $40,000,000 budget for a movie about Jesus. A mass released film! So I’m thinking, well, if I’m a writer and I want to get the message out, it’s all in the writing, it’s all in the screenplay, it’s what people say and how these characters take hold. So I’ve decided that’s what I’m going to try to do. I’m going to try to get that message out through writing and do it in film and television.

Talbot: Your first book, “God Underneath,” the one that President Clinton read. What do you think it was that drew him and other readers to that book? What is that?

Beck: I think it was the fact that as a Roman Catholic priest, I was very honest in that book. I was very self-revelatory. I didn’t hold back. And there are pluses and minuses to that. I also took some heat for that. But I think I told my story in a very truthful way and I think people wanted to get inside the mind and the life of a Roman Catholic priest. That book helped them to do it. It was a very personal book and I think the warts were very evident. I don’t think I was afraid to show them. I think that’s what connected with people.

Talbot: What do you mean “the warts”?

Beck: Well, my own weaknesses, my own struggles with my journey. The road to the priesthood hasn’t been always easy.

Talbot: Were you kicking and screaming along the way?

Beck: Well, I was doing other things in my life. I was working on Wall Street at the time and I was dating at the time and I thought I had a different path for my life. And yet I had this sense that I couldn’t do this for the rest of my life for some reason. There was this nagging that I had to do something that connected more spiritually. I didn’t know if it would have to go all the way to the priesthood, kind of the other extreme, but that’s what wound up happening. There were struggles to that. There are still struggles to that but I mean I’m very happy.

Talbot: Isn’t that kind of resistance a part of the prophetic?

Beck: I guess it is. But we all struggle even with that part, right?

Talbot: The cost of discipleship.

Beck: Yes. The cost of discipleship.

Pawlus: I want to circle back to our theme today, hope. I wonder, you’ve called out an interesting example for yourself. You were reaching out or yelling out to God in a time of real need. It seems like that’s when we call on God for hope most of the time. But how do we infuse that in our daily lives more often, to live a more God-filled, positive experience? I’m sure you addressed this in many of the stories in “God Underneath,” as well.

Beck: I think it’s that spark that we each have inside that you just don’t let go out. Did you ever meet somebody who has let it go out? There’s no light in their eyes. They’re just kind of flat. I was recently watching Jennifer Hudson, who is from Chicago, one of the “Dreamgirls.” She’s come from rather poor circumstances here in Chicago and now she’s winning all these awards and she’s the toast of the town. She keeps talking about God, though. She never gave up hope that she would succeed in this. She was kicked off “American Idol.” They didn’t want her there. And now she is probably going to win an Academy Award. She just didn’t give up. Now that’s a celebrity example, but I think there is that spark inside that says, “I can do this! I can become who God wants me to become if I give myself over to it.”

Talbot: You’re using the word “spark” a couple of times. Living a life of hope abundantly is maybe related to that. Maya Angelou says “to survive is important but to thrive is elegant.” How do you think about that and how do you council or minister to people whose child has died?

Beck: I think the first thing that’s important to do in those circumstances is to not deny the experience, to be with them in it. Don’t say, “Oh, it’s OK,” or, “You’ll get over it really fast,” or “God had a reason for this.” I don’t believe any of that. I believe in being with the person in the pain of it. Show them that, yes, it’s terrible, it’s awful, but it’s not the end of their life and somehow ythey will get through this and they’ll come out the other side and their life will go on. It will be forever altered but they’ll still find happiness in their life and there will still be something to hope for. I think it’s about not denying the experience and then saying that’s not all you are. What happened to you is bad, but there is something else for you, too.

Pawlus: Edward, what are some of your hopes for this coming year that you’d like to see move forward in your work or on a personal level?

Beck: Well, I’d like to finish that screenplay.

Talbot: And you said you’d tell us a little bit about it.

Beck: Well, it’s based on a parish in Hell’s Kitchen in the 1940s. It’s an interesting story about who comes through that parish and how it’s changed. We’ll see if I can do it justice. But I’m going to work on that.

Pawlus: We wish you luck with that.

Beck: Thank you. And I’m going to continue to preach at parish retreats and missions around the country, try to make the Word evident through that ministry and do a lot of traveling there. And just continue doing what I do and hope that it makes a difference for people.

Talbot: You have to tell us your mother’s name before we end!

Beck: Geraldine McGinnis.

Talbot: Bless her!

Pawlus: Wonderful. Thanks for being a light and a spark for us today. We’re always glad to have you on the show.

Beck: Thank you. It’s my pleasure.

     

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