Hope for the Future

Introduction

This text is a spiritual reflection by Bishop Michael Brehl on how Christians are called to love the world through the Cross of Christ. It explores what it means to be “in the world but not of the world,” and how sacrificial love transforms both persons and society.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.”
— John 3:16

God’s love for the world

God’s starting point is not condemnation but love: the Father sends the Son not to reject the world, but to save and heal it. The Cross is presented as the most concrete, visible sign of this love, where Christ embraces all human suffering and sin.

“God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
— John 3:17

The bishop stresses that Christian hope is rooted in this divine initiative: God is already at work in the world, even when it seems broken or far from the Gospel. Because of this, believers are invited to look at reality not with fear or cynicism, but with the eyes of Christ.

Loving the world through the Cross

The central idea is that Christians are called not to escape the world, but to love it in the same cruciform way that Jesus did. To love “through the Cross” means accepting vulnerability, self-giving, and the willingness to bear others’ burdens rather than dominate or withdraw.

This love is not sentimental; it is costly, concrete and often hidden, resembling Jesus’ silent fidelity on Calvary. The bishop underlines that such love has a mysterious fruitfulness: what appears like loss or defeat becomes, in God’s hands, a source of new life.

“In the world, not of the world”

The reflection explains that Christians live fully immersed in ordinary realities—family, work, culture, politics—while remaining interiorly free from the spirit of selfishness and compromise. The issue is not contact with the world, but conformity to ways of thinking that contradict the Gospel.

Authentic discipleship involves discernment: learning to recognize where the Spirit is already at work and where sin distorts human dignity. The bishop encourages believers not to retreat into closed religious circles, but to be present as a “creative minority” that leavens society from within.

Witness in daily life

Bishop Brehl links this theology directly to everyday choices: patience in family tensions, honesty in professional life, forgiveness in conflicts, and hospitality toward the poor and excluded. These small, hidden acts form a pattern of life shaped by the Cross.

He points out that this kind of witness often goes unnoticed by the world, yet it is precisely there that God’s Kingdom grows. The emphasis falls less on spectacular initiatives and more on quiet fidelity to love where one actually lives.

Community and Church

The text stresses that no one follows this path alone: the Church is the community where the love of Christ is celebrated, learned, and renewed, especially in the Eucharist. There, believers receive the strength to return to the world and love as they have been loved.

The bishop highlights the example of communities and lay movements that live simplicity, mutual support, and service as a visible sign of hope. Their life shows that another way of relating—rooted in the Gospel and not in power or success—is truly possible.

Hope, in this reflection, is not optimism based on human calculation but trust in the risen Christ who already holds the future. Even amid crises, scandals, or cultural shifts, Christians believe that the Cross and Resurrection are the deepest truth about history.

Therefore, the call is not to nostalgia or despair, but to a renewed readiness to be instruments of God’s love in the present moment. The bishop concludes that the future of the Church and the world depends, in a real sense, on whether believers accept this vocation to love through the Cross.

Author’s summary: The text invites Christians to remain fully engaged in the world yet interiorly shaped by the Cross, trusting that quiet, sacrificial love is God’s chosen path for renewing humanity and history.

Madonna House Apostolate — 2025-11-25