Joyful and Holy Hope
When I served my
mission in France one of my favorite hymns was the French version of God
Be With You Till We Meet Again. In the
English version the chorus speaks of meeting those we say goodbye to again with the Savior, “Till we meet, till we
meet, Till we meet at Jesus’ feet, Till we meet, till we meet, God be with you
till we meet again.” The French version has
a similar message, but includes the idea of a hope that guides the disciples of
Jesus Christ: “O joyeuse et sainte espérance pour tous ceux qui suivent Jésus! Nous nous verrons
en sa presence quand la mort, le deuil ne seront plus!” (My translation: “O joyful and holy hope for all those who follow
Jesus! We will see one other in his presence when death, mourning will be gone.”) As we go through this life our paths cross only
for a short time with many others, and often we have to say goodbye; for the
disciples of Jesus Christ our hope is that we can see each other again when we
are in the presence of Jesus, to “sit down in his kingdom, to go no more out”
(Alma 34:36).
I distinctly remember a moment many years ago as I visited some
members I had served with on my way home from my mission with my family. One sister took me aside and urged me to be
faithful to the end so that we could all be together as friends in heaven in
the next life. In the gospel we have a joyful
and holy hope that we can continue all the wonderful associations that we had
on earth in the next life, only that there “it will be coupled with eternal
glory, which glory we do not now enjoy” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:2). But to have that we must “hold out faithful
to the end” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:13).
In Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, he similarly urged them to faithfulness
and to stay true to this hope that we have as disciples of Jesus Christ. He wrote that they must “continue in the
faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel,
which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under
heaven” (Colossians 1:23). We can be
grounded and settled, “steadfast and immovable” as king Benjamin would put it,
because of our hope in the glory to come (Mosiah 5:15). Without that joyful hope in Christ both in
this life and in the life to come, we would be “of all men most miserable” as
Paul put it (1 Corinthians 15:19).
If there is any moment
in the scriptures that I could imagine this song being sung, it would the scene
recorded in Acts 20 when Paul was saying goodbye to the saints from Ephesus
before sailing off to Rome. He exhorted
them to faithfulness to the end, telling them, “Take heed therefore unto
yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own
blood.” He warned them of “grievous
wolves” that would come among them, urging them to “watch, and remember” telling
them, “I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to
build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are
sanctified.” He told them of how he had
warned “every one night and day with tears,” and those tears were repeated by
all that day as they said goodbye: “They all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s
neck, and kissed him, Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that
they should see his face no more” (Acts 20:28, 31, 37-38). Surely they held fast to their “joyful and
holy hope” in Jesus Christ, looking forward to the day when they could meet Paul
again in the presence of the Lord.
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