Lament and Hope

18th March 2026
This Lent we have seen the world plunge further into darkness and violence. It contributes to a sense of lament which affects us all. As part of my Lenten practice, I have been reading Walter Brueggemann’s small volume on the Spirituality of the Psalms. The Psalms are often dark and difficult to read, and they do not skirt around the reality of our lives and world. They challenge us, says Brueggemann, that “there is an untamed darkness in our life that must be embraced”. This untamed darkness is in our world as well as within ourselves. But, in our personal and communal lament of this darkness we are not left without hope. Speaking of the crucified Incarnate One, Brueggemann writes,   
 
                Because this One has promised to be in the darkness with us,
                           we find the darkness strangely transformed,
                                       not by the power of easy light,
                            but by the power of relentless solidarity.
                 Out of the “fear not” of that One spoken in the darkness,
                               we are marvelously given new life,
                                          we know not how.

As I sit this Lent with the overwhelming sense of lament, I am comforted by the “relentless solidarity” of the crucified Incarnate God. I listen to the “fear not”, and, although I “know not how”, I wait in hope for the marvellous gift of new life. May you, and our world this week, also be held in the “relentless solidarity” of the crucified Incarnate One, and may we together wait in hope, though we “know not how”, for the grace of the marvellous gift of new life.

Brian Holliday  
Anam Cara for the Guiding Committee  
                                                                                                    Photo by Getty Images for Unsplash