“The arc of the moral
universe is long but bends towards Justice.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used this aphorism in a
sermon delivered at Temple Israel of Hollywood.
This is a hopeful image. The
aphorism is a snapshot of hope as virtue and discipline, before we unpack and
interpret this aphorism, we need to ask some questions.
What is Hope? Hope can be a slippery thing to lay hold. We
may by a lottery ticket and in hoping to win the lottery. A child might hope that she is getting from
her parents a gift that she asked to receive. Such hope doesn’t seem to be
either virtuous nor does it require any discipline. The second case approaches more what we mean
when we speak of hope as virtue and discipline. In the case of the hope of a
child for a gift from their parents, is hoping in someone for something There
is a difference between hoping to win the lottery and hoping to receive
something one has asked for at Christmas.. The hope of the child is rooted in
the loving relationship between the child and their parent. The hoped-for
outcome isn’t guaranteed, but it is more likely and is bound up with a
relationship. In this second type of
hope what one is hoping in is distinguished from what is hoped for, yet they
are bound up together. Even so, in the hope of a child for a Christmas gift
hasn’t yet brought us to hope as virtue and discipline
All instances of hope aren’t virtuous. So, we need to ask
what is common across various instances of hopefulness. So that we then can lay
hold of a hope that is something we can call a virtue and about which we can be
disciplined. What covers all connotations of hope is that hope looks to a fulfillment;
it also lives now in anticipation of that fulfillment.
Given this sense of hope, what then does it mean for hope to
be both a discipline and a virtue? Hope is a virtue and discipline if what is
hoped in is a good that is more than a desire for only oneself and more than
wishful thinking. Hope that is a virtue is a hope bound up with a movement
toward the good, something that in hoping for it we are moved towards our betterment.
For hope to be a virtue and discipline requires something to be hoped in and
for that can lead us to something greater than we are now. Hope that is a virtue and a discipline is
hope that moves us toward what is hoped for.
Hope as virtue and discipline is anticipation that actively waits for
what is hoped for. This sort of hope isn’t passive; it is moving towards a goal
or an end.
Hope can be a virtue because hoping in something that moves
us towards that which we hope. Such a
hope requires an expansiveness, to borrow Obama’s phrase, it requires an
audacity. Simultaneously it also requires humility to admit that what is hoped
for isn’t yet realized. Hope as virtue and discipline is magnanimous and
humble.
The enemy of hope as virtue is presumption. This may find
itself in too great a confidence, too much assurance that at any moment what is
hoped for is coming to fruition or fulfilment and completion in that moment.
Thus, it is destructive of hope to use hope as part of a political campaign as
Obama’s campaign did. This is so, largely
because, what we hoped for in Obama wasn’t going to be completely fulfilled by
Obama’s admiration, rather a virtuous hopefulness in a political party or a factional
politics, or a politician is in there being able to bring us closer to that
which we hope, not for their ability to deliver that for which we hope. What was hopeful about Obama and his campaign
and subsequent presidency was only hopeful to the degree that that hope was
what propelled Obama, not in his or his administration’s ability to fulfill and
deliver that for which we hope. Thus, to
the degree that Obama was hopeful with us and not the object of our hope then
we have a truly hopeful politics, but the moment we hoped in Obama or his
administration, we ceased to have hope in a way that is virtue and discipline
and which can lead us toward a goal greater than ourselves.
Hope as virtue and discipline needs the humility to
understand that there is in this life always a remainder of what is hoped for
in any movement towards what we hope. For hope as virtue and discipline there
needs to be the simultaneous magnanimity of claiming to be able to achieve what
is hoped for with a sense that the fullness of what is hoped for can’t be found
in any one moment.
What sort of things might we say we hope for in this manner?
What is it that we can both be audacious about and about which we can be
humble?
Hoping in God and of
the God revealed in Jesus Christ.
The God revealed to us in the Hebrew Prophets and the divine
human Jew Jesus of Nazareth, is a god who is about justice and who defines for
us justice as the concern for and right treatment of those who are
marginalized, most vulnerable and who are outcasts. Captives, prisoners, widows,
orphans, those who can’t easily and financially hold on to property and means
of production to provide for their daily lives, food, shelter and
clothing. In the letter from the Apostle
James, we are told that true religion is one that has solidarity with the poor
and the vulnerable.
Thus, hope for this sort of justice can reside not simply in
some future wished for utopia, that may or may not be achieved, nor something
that may or may not be realistic and realizable rather this hope is bound up in
the very fabric of the universe and in the source of all that is.
When Martin Luther King Jr. affirms the aphorism “The arc
of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”, this isn’t
some generic hope, but a faith statement about the one has aimed the bow and
the arrow is on target.. This is faith
in the God who is revealed to us in the Hebrew prophets and in Jesus of
Nazareth. That is Martin Luther King Jr. isn’t in that moment talking as a
politician of a one nation state, but as a member of the people of God, Israel, the
Church. He is speaking as a preacher and a prophet.
The above aphorism. isn’t a hope in humanity’s ability to
progress based in humanity alone, but in God’s work in history
Hope then in its activist form is seeking to act in
accordance with this goal. This is what makes hope a discipline. The virtue of living in conformity with the
long arc of bent towards justice, is to live in a certain way. Hoping in this
manner is especially a disciple when a present moment seems at odds with what
is hoped for. As a Rabbi friend says it is to act as if.
The difficulty and the virtue of hope is that some aspects of
the current moment will appear to be an argument against having hope. If hope is merely wishful thinking, if we
can’t say truthfully that in some sense justice, wholeness, true life isn’t the
goal isn’t the direction of things, then no living as if will counter what
immediately appears.
To have hope that is a virtue and can be a discipline is to
have hope in something that is true beyond a certain instance. It is to hope in
something that is true about our deepest selves and the entire universe and of
human being. Different philosophies and Spiritualties
may give different reasons for it being there or exactly how to describe it but
it must be an affirmation that our goal forms us into our truest selves. Simultaneously it must also affirm that this
goal is beyond any one of us or any moment. The fulfillment of this hope is beyond
us but also realized in us an in moments even if not yet landing its mark.
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