H.O.P.E.
In your justice rescue me, and deliver me; incline your ear to me, and save me. - Psalm 71:2
Upon reading today’s responsorial psalm, I reflected on who the psalmist may be. Especially when seeing the themes of oppression and liberation, I imagined someone who has experienced poverty, starvation, chronic illness, or some type of systemic inequity. Specifically, I imagined someone experiencing incarceration. This personal connection stems from my experiences as a volunteer in Catholic prison ministry.
I particularly remember a youth named Elvin. I began visiting Elvin in Juvenile Hall when he was 15 years old. Elvin was locked up due to his negative encounters with law enforcement and a DUI that injured others. Behind the crimes was a boy who came from homelessness and gang affiliation. With each visit, I learned more about Elvin’s childhood and the traumas he endured: the loss of his father to overdose, the death of one brother to gang violence, and the deportation of another. I visited Elvin nearly every week with my primary motivation being the fact that he had no other visitors. His mother resided in a nursing home after suffering a stroke and his older sister was constantly moving from motel to motel.
Despite the suffering Elvin endured, he was always full of light during every visit. One day, the topic of hope came into our conversation. I asked Elvin if he knew what it meant (believing that he wouldn’t). Then came my consolation: “I know what hope means!” proclaimed Elvin, “H.O.P.E. Hold. On. Pain. Ends.”
Thank you Elvin, for teaching me through your life what it means to be hopeful during suffering. As we journey closer to Easter, may we remember to be pilgrims of such hope, always singing of Your salvation.
For you are my hope, O LORD; my trust, O God.
Christopher Tran