We live in scary times. The despicable murders of Israeli civilians by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza have displayed the gruesomeness of hatred and of war. We have witnessed the fears and then the debated responses that accompanied a global pandemic. The highest inflation in 40 years came swiftly after, crushing the long-fought financial efforts of so many families. And now the Iran-facilitated killing of American soldiers places America closer to open hostilities in the Middle East. Any with loved ones serving in the region must worry all the more about the safety of their children, parents, siblings, and friends in harm’s way.
Fear makes sense. Many are gripped by it, even paralyzed by it. But we must ask: Is fear all we can wallow in during such difficult times?
On Oct. 22, 1978, Pope John Paul II conducted his inaugural Mass at St. Peter’s Square. He took his important office in trying times as well. The world’s economy saw what one British politician named “stagflation,” a double hit of high inflation and low economic growth. An energy crisis went on that had plagued much of the West since the beginning of the decade, causing gas shortages and high prices. The Cold War seemed at best eternal and at worst favoring the communist ambitions of the Soviet Union. Much of Eastern Europe, including the pope’s own home of Poland, remained under its authoritarian grip. The threat of a nuclear war continued with its terrifying promise of millions of civilian deaths.
At that inaugural Mass, Pope John Paul II said profoundly, “Be not afraid.” In so saying, the pope did not ignore the frightening realities facing his hearers. He did not ask them to deny the troubles then plaguing all with eyes to see and wits to perceive.
Instead, he pointed them to a different response: hope. Just as that call to hope did not ignore reality, it also was not an empty exhortation. Hope must look somewhere for its substance, some place for its possibility. Pope John Paul II would look to the promises of Christianity for that hope. God had not forgotten the world he created. Nor had he utterly condemned all in it to slavery and destruction.
This hope was shared by others who then took to the world stage. Margaret Thatcher would become prime minster of Great Britain in May of 1979. Ronald Reagan would win the American presidency in a landslide in November of 1980. These three leaders, along with many others across the world, faced the fears of the times rather than succumbing to their crushing weight. In hope, they fought. They fought the economic problems that hurt so many families. They battled the atheist totalitarianism of the Soviet Union.
And they won. Economic prosperity returned after a long absence. The Berlin Wall fell as millions were liberated from tyranny. A world unimaginable to most took shape — a better world.
We can have the same response to our own day’s troubles. We must. The world seems teetering on the brink of chaos, a chaos that threatens economic failure, political upheaval, and militaristic bloodshed not experienced on a world scale in generations. Yet we can hope.
And in that hope, we can fight. For those in the Judeo-Christian tradition, we can look to the words of Psalm 46, that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.”
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We can work with all persons, regardless of race, class, sex, or religious belief, to seek a better, safer world on the principles of good seen by all in the laws of nature and of nature’s God.
As we fight, let us hope and pray for leaders again such as John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan. Let us be part of that struggle, not ignoring the problems nor reluctant to pay the needed price. Be not afraid.
Adam Carrington is an associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College.
