HW: Giving an account of the hope that is in you

A reflection on 1 Peter 3:15-18, written and spoken by Kieran J. O'Mahony OSA

Gentle piano music to close the meditation

Transcript

John’s Lane
10 May 2026
The hope that is in you
1 Peter 3:15-18

Welcome
There is a sentence in today’s second reading which is irresistible for me: Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have. In a broader translation: always be ready to give an account of the hope that is in you. This requires being able to tell my own story of faith but, of its nature, it widens out into a dialogue with the modern grasp of our world and what it means to be human. 

Topic
This requires being able to tell my own story of faith to begin with. 

Steps
Probably nobody is persuaded or dissuaded purely by rational arguments. When giving an account of our hope, we need first of all to talk to ourselves —  if it is not too strange — to tell myself my own story of faith. What was my earliest experience like? Were there times of intense conviction? Times of cooling off? And where do I find myself today? How do I nourish my faith? Such a narrative of faith can shed light on the present moment and even help me to name my own convictions and find a way of talking about the faith.

The personal experiences and core convictions form a narrative foundation for a deeper engagement. Why does belief in God make more sense of life than pure materialism and ultimate absurdity? On the human journey what is the place of love and altruism? I was greatly helped early on by a book, a very large book, entitled Does God Exist? by a certain Hans Küng, the great Swiss theologian. Why do I find myself attracted to the person and teaching of Jesus? How would I put words on what happened for me/us in his death and resurrection? What does it mean to me today to be a disciple? For a one-volume account of Jesus, it would be hard to beat the book by a Spanish priest, José Pagola, Jesus. An Historical Approximation. He captures the attraction of Jesus’ person and teaching in a way which could help me/us today on our own path of faith and discipleship. Not least, on this journey, I am not alone — there is a community of faith, for all its faults, from which I receive the faith and within which I live my faith today. For us all, as individuals and as a community discipleship is a trajectory of conversion and transformation, love and service, as Pope Francis frequently reminded us.

Part of the genius of the ‘catholic’ type churches is a conviction that faith and reason do not finally contradict one another. We find this in the Orthodox Church, in the Anglican Communion and in our own church. It may well be that the truly lasting writing of Pope John Paul II will be his encyclical precisely entitled Faith and Reason — not always an easy read (he was a philosopher after all) —  but a brand canvas, a kind of  comprehensive position paper. Just recently, a new book was published on the relationship between faith and science. The title is a bit forbidding but the content is thrilling — accessible and informative. Nicholas Spencer’s book is called Magisteria. The Entangled Histories of Science and Religion. The writer easily puts to bed many common misconceptions and shows how contemporary science can be integrated with faith.   

Such integration can be eminently practical. A good example of the practical integration of science and religion would be the teaching of Pope Francis on care of the environment. He was exactly on the button, because climate change is the over-riding issue of our time and will be so for the foreseeable future. There are many Laudato Si’ groups. Such groups keep the issue before our eyes, both spiritually and practically.

Another example of imaginative integration is the effort to re-think the Jesus story in a cosmological way. This starts already in the New Testament, where we read the amazing words:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  (Colossians 1:15–17)

This is a vast discussion, of course, touching on the mesmerising discoveries of our cosmos. Where is the place of Jesus, the image of the invisible God, in all this is also a thrilling exploration.

Conclusion
I began by talking about being able to give an account of the hope that is you. This does start quite personally (what my story?) but it quickly opens out into a rich dialogue with our understanding of our world. In the disarming words of the great scientist and theologian, Teilhard de Chardin, there is something wonderful afoot in the universe.