There's "hope," and then there's "Hope"

Some references to "hope" should be taken very seriously. Others are pretty much just empty words. But sometimes you run into an instance in which you really have to wonder what people are thinking.

Now, I'm as optimistic about wind energy as the next guy (unless the next guy happens to be T. Boone Pickens). Living in a part of the country that is mostly occupied by sunshine, sand, and wind, I'm all for pumping money into our local economy rather than sending it to the Saudis. But to equate the hope that comes from a more renewable energy policy to that which comes from God sending His only Son to redeem mankind...well, that's just bizarre. And not in that funny of a way, the more I think about it. By the way, maybe the most forehead-slapping aspect of the whole thing is that the card comes from a catalog called "Holiday Classics." If that's classic...!

While speaking last month about St. Teresa Benedict of the Cross and St. Maximilian Kolbe (who both died at the hands of the Nazis), Pope Benedict XVI said, “He who prays never loses hope, even when he finds himself in difficult situations.” That's the kind of renewal that we should really be putting our hope in.