History says, Don't hope on this side of the grave.
It is too much to ask for mere mortals such as us.
Yet we say, Noli timere. Do not be afraid.
Hope is not beyond your reach. It is not in the highest
region of heaven, or out beyond the farthest sea.
Hope need not be the exclusive province of heroic figures.
Noli timere. Do not be afraid.
Hope is in your mouth, ready to be savored; it is in your
heart, awaiting love’s harness. Noli timere. Noli timidus.
Do not be afraid, brothers. Do not be timid, sisters.
The time will come when the longed-for tidal wave of
justice will rise up, when hope and history shall rhyme.*
Noli timere. Do not be afraid.
So then, live toward that great sea-change on the far side
of revenge. Believe that a further shore is reachable from
here.* Noli timere. Noli timidus.
Do not be afraid, mothers. Do not be timid, fathers.
Believe in miracles and cures and healing wells.
Noli timere!
Behold, the Beloved summons heaven and earth to
witness our resolve: blessings and life in the face of
curses and death. Choose life, and rejoice evermore.
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Deuteronomist: One who accounts history to elicit response in the hearer. Written on the eve of a U.S. Congressional debate over attacking Syria, with lines selected and adapted from Deut 31. *From Irish poet and playwright Seamus Heaney’s play “The Cure at Troy: After Philoctetes by Sophocles.” “Noli timere—fear not” were Heaney’s final words to his wife before he died 30 August 2013.