Now Is The Time For Hope

  Everyone of us, when he pauses for a moment of silence, needs to feel not only the beating of his own heart, but more deeply, the beating of a trustworthy Presence, perceptible to the sense of faith and yet more real:   the presence of Christ, Heart of the world.

These are the words of Pope Benedict XVI on the 1st of June 2008.

If Zimbabwe was a person, we would say the beating of her heart has slowed down to dangerous levels, threatening to cease any time.  But there is another heartbeat to which we need to attune our senses to with the deeper sense of faith.  This is the beating of a trustworthy Presence.  This is the Heart of Christ, which is the Heart of Hope.

When your own heart slows down, probably there is another Heart which God wants you to hear beating, inviting you to a kind of Love you can embrace without fear, a kind of Hope that never disappoints.  

Somebody said, when you hit the rock bottom, you are in positive danger of hitting the Rock of Ages.

This is the time for hope.  If there was no such as time as this, hope would make no sense.

Rejoice in hope, writes the apostle Paul in Romans 12:12, Endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.

One General, quoted by Dr. Stanko, said that hope is listening to the music of the future, faith is dancing to it now.  That means there is no music to dance to at the time of the dance.  Hope is the music, that gives the energy, and the audacity to dance in advance.  Even as to others who have no ear for such a music, the gyrations of the dancer seem ludicrous, to those who have learnt to listen to the music of hope, the dance is beautiful.

When everything is reduced to ashes and there is no sign of life, our faith is in a state of decomposition, like that of the disciples journeying to Emmaus.  There is a Stranger who hears every word they speak, understands every doubt and fear in their hearts, for His own Heart beats in theirs.  He draws close to them in the shadows of the night and confronts their fear.  They were later to give a testimony, Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road …  (Luke 24:32)

There is room for hope even in the coldest of hearts.  In the heap of ashes, there is a tiny spark of fire, hidden from the eyes of men, but Christ sees it and with every cry of anguish, every corpse, he draws close to fan into the ashes of our nation and the tiny invisible spark will leap into a thunderous flame, bursting with grace and the nations shall give glory to God in the highest.

This is the way of hope.  Something the enemy will try to take away and fill the hearts of the faithful with fear.  Destroy their spirit with lies and fill them with doubt.  But Christ has already told us not to fear those who have power to destroy the body alone, and thereafter to nothing to the spirit.  They have no power, for sticks and stones cannot break my spirit.  There is a center that holds me together.  Blessed the nation that places its hope in Christ, its spirit is unbreakable.

Christians are specie of mankind called to hope against hope, because the One in whom they believe in has got a tendency of rising from the dead in every situation.  Walking through closed doors.  Walking on the troubled waters.  Commanding dead bodies to walk.  Once in history, enemies of this hope placed armed men on the entrance of a tomb to guard a dead man.  Why? Fulton Sheen asked.  Because they had no faith in their own unbelief.  They feared His word may after all be truth.  They feared the truth which they desperately denied.  The truth which they secretly believed in.

If the enemy finds no sleep, guarding the tomb of a Man he preaches to be dead, then you know that your hope is not false.  Even the blind in Zimbabwe sense it by their supernatural sight that we are on the brink of a major historical shake-up and the demons only lie to themselves.

When all lights have been turned off, and darkness pervades every corner of the land, in the Christian heart, there rises a dim star.  As the clock ticks, the number of martyrs is rising by day.  With a mighty breath of the Spirit, we realize that that star is not a star, but the sun of the world who scatters the dark, exposing the wickedness on the night and sending its authors scurrying for cover.  Angels continue counting the corpses.  Hypocrisy fills our airwaves, but we are drawing close to the magic number: God will not be silent forever.

Every groan that escapes the mouth of the suffering and the dying is such a powerful prayer that rises to the throne of God.  We look at them and we see the Son of Man crucified again and again.  One more corpse and the voice is crossing the borders.  The Church, the tears of the saints, the blood of the martyrs are crying on behalf of this nation.  Never before has there ever been such a great army interceding on the Throne of Divine Mercy all over the world.

Cry beloved Zimbabwe.  God is close to you today than ever before.  Millions cry in groans no words can express.  The unborn, the infants, the young, the widowed, the orphaned, the sick, the old.  Every separate voice is heard in a new tone as a separate testimony.  We are hitting the Rock of Ages and soon and very soon God will speak.  He will shake the foundations of darkness and its walls will come tumbling.  Light and peace will flood this land. 

Say a prayer everyday and become part of this flood. 

Cling to Him like a child, for the moment of hope is now.

 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget yet I will not forget you.  Isaiah 49:15.

Zimbabwe is God’s darling.