Hope Against Hope in Small Acts of Love

by John Huynh | July 21, 2025

We live in a world saturated with symbols, but few of them actually mean what they show.  For example, a Facebook “like” can suggest friendship, support, or solidarity.  Often, though, it requires nothing from us and does little for the other person. It gestures without truly giving.  

Karl Rahner, the Jesuit priest and theologian, insisted that symbols are not merely signs pointing to something beyond themselves. True symbols, like the sacraments or acts of love, make present what they signify. In this way, Christian charity is never just a gesture of goodwill or a sign of inner affection. When we serve our brothers and sisters in charity, we enflesh our love for them through our actions. 

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Des Moines, is a symbol of Christ’s love for the thousands of brothers and sisters we serve each year through our different programs. While financial gifts are crucial to sustaining our mission, the physical, human act of being present to prepare and serve a meal, or to drive to Hy-Vee and pick up rescue food to hand out for the day is a sacramental witness to love in action.  

In a time when despair often runs deep, presence is a grace-filled antidote. 

And the greatest teacher for us when it comes to the power of being present is Mary, Mater Spei—the Mother of Hope. At the foot of the cross, she stood, likely torn by anguish yet did not turn away. Surely, she could have shouted the same doubt we all feel when the world around us falls apart. Yet she believed that her beloved son would rise again. 

This July, the Church celebrates the Jubilee of Hope for young adults and youth; we are reminded that the fire of hope is active in our young faithful.  They are hope in a world marked by deep wounds: war, social and political division, hunger, and human trafficking, etc. The Church calls them to have the courage to believe that small acts of love can still matter. The Church and the world need their energy, their presence, and their love. 

J.R.R. Tolkien, through Gandalf the wizard in The Hobbit, puts it this way: “I have found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”  

Hope against hope finds itself in quiet persistence: small acts of love, a patient presence, a hidden act of mercy. These are not naïve gestures. They are a refusal to allow despair to have the final word. They say, as Mary believed, that love would rise again. 

So I urge you, and especially the young adults and youths of the Diocese, to join us during this Jubilee of Hope. Sign up to serve at our food pantry. Volunteer to cook a meal for the individuals and families in our emergency shelters in Council Bluffs or Des Moines. Organize a parish service project to support victims of domestic or sexual abuse by collecting and assembling comfort kits with toiletries, blankets and journals. Advocate for our programs or donate items that directly meet people’s needs. Visit catholiccharitiesdm.org/get-involved to learn more. 

Hope has hands. Let them be yours.