Hope sprang yesterday in late October 15 years ago -- an oldie but goodie from the files of Blithe Spirit the blog . . .

Resurrected for the edification of Blithe Spirit Weekly readers . . .

Yesterday was bad-news day at Chi Trib, as noted.  But it was good-news day in pulpits throughout the world, wherever the so-called common lectionary is followed.  Link is to RC bishops’ site.  Vanderbilt Divinity Library has it too, if organized less for worship than for study.

It was definitely feel-good time in Christian churches — at least in those who did not veer off into discussions of government-supplied health care and the like.

The often dreadful and dread-inspiring Jeremiah quotes the Lord:

Shout with joy for Jacob,
exult at the head of the nations;
proclaim your praise and say:
The LORD has delivered his people,
the remnant of Israel.

. . . .

They departed in tears,
but I will console them and guide them;
I will lead them to brooks of water,
on a level road, so that none shall stumble.

As one who has stumbled badly — down stairs, on sidewalk, off bicycle — I respond to that with some gratification.

“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy” is the repeated theme of the “responsorial Psalm,” with memorable phrases such as:

Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.

And

Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.

Ah that carrying sheaves — bundles of newly reaped grain — as in the old Protestant hymn:

Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;
Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

With then, of course, the titular refrain:

Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves

And in the letter to Hebrews, a kind word for the priest, “himself beset by weakness,” as we have become painfully aware in recent years:

He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring,
for he himself is beset by weakness
and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself
as well as for the people.

Finally, Mark’s account of the miracle worker at work:

Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
“Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”

Shut up, they told him, but he kept yelling, “”Son of David, have pity on me.”

“Call him,” Jesus told them.  He jumped up and came up.  “I want to see,” he said.

Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.

Well, we’d all like to see things clearly in our world as it is, if only to clear up the question on the minds of us all, “What the hell is going on here?”

The whole business is a case of hope we can believe in.

. . . End of resurrected blog item . . .