It so happens in this election year that two books are circulating that have hope as their theme.  One is a thick book, "The Audacity of Hope," by presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama.  The other is a thin book, "Saved in Hope," by Pope Benedict XVI.  They couldn't be more different.

        Readers not only have a choice between thick and thin, but between American English and Ecclesiastical Latin.  They also have a choice between the secular and the sacred.  As one man moves forward with campaign rallies that look like religious revivals, the other man moves backward and allows the revival of the Latin Mass. 

        In one book we read about a God who becomes man and in the other we read about a god who becomes theory.  We have a choice, don't we, between a secular socialism and a religious individualism?

        Between thick and thin we also have two different perspectives on the word "hope."  One man hopes for abortion on demand while another hopes for the birth of new life.  One man hopes for gay marriage and another hopes for a renewal of the traditional family.  One man hopes for a rise in the size and power of the liberal state, while another hopes for individual rights. 

        The thick and thin differs even more.  One wants us to believe in change and the other wants us to believe in the Eucharist.  One hopes for the liberalism to come while another hopes for the world to come. One seeks the votes of liberated lesbians while the other asks for the intercession of the Virgin Mary.

        Political commentators claim that this presidential campaign has captured the attention of the world. Senator Obama is cheered on by many who aren't even American citizens.  Could it be that there is world wide resentment for America and Western Civilization, and Senator Obama represents the fruit of that resentment?  Such is the Messianic hope that collapses into political hope for the end of European hegemony.

        It is ironic how the Pope and the Senator call on their gravitas to draw people into their vision of hope. Does each wear his own mask, as well, and if they do, what is behind that mask?  The Pope tells us suffering is a setting for learning to hope.  The Senator asks, "Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?"

        It seems sometimes that western civilization is always in conflict with itself.  "The audacity of hope," and "saved by hope" may be yet another skirmish in that protracted civil war.  In this conflict there are those who believe liberalism can never be proven because it is a theory that starts from above and tries to impose itself upon the world.

        Likewise, there are those who believe we should start with the flesh and blood of man in the world, the incarnation, and then reach for what is above.  Hope may be the common currency between these world views, but we should be aware of what it buys.  The same price may get us into heaven or hell.

        The world has seen times and politics like this before.  The thrashing about of the lost and their blank stare when they have seized upon the meaning of the moment is nothing new.  Nor is the death and social chaos that follows politics gone amuck.  The Romans saw "In nihil ab nihilo quam cito recedimus: How quickly we fall back from nothing to nothing." 

        The left turn made by the boomers in the 1960s that got us on the highway we now travel, has lead to a bumpy road.  Many in that generation have gone from one nothing to another.  Enter, now, Senator Barack Obama.  This election may be their last chance to hold on to something.  Let's hope it's not a rope that follows the bucket into the well of despair.