Faith, Light, and Love: Choosing Hope When Hate Strikes

This should be a season of light.

Christmas is almost here.

Hanukkah begins tonight.

And yet, we are reminded — painfully — that hatred does not pause for holy days. Violence erupted where learning should be safe. Lives were taken during a celebration of faith. Moments meant for prayer, reflection, and togetherness were shattered by cruelty.

That reality cannot — and should not — be ignored.

But neither should this truth: faith was never meant to be fragile.

Across traditions, faith teaches the same quiet insistence — that human life is sacred, that love is stronger than fear, and that light exists even when darkness feels overwhelming. Whether expressed through a candle, a prayer, a song, or a moment of silence, faith is what anchors love when the world feels unmoored.

Hate targets faith precisely because faith binds people together.

It reminds us that we are accountable to something higher than anger, ideology, or revenge.

Hope is not pretending everything is fine.

Hope is choosing compassion when despair would be easier.

Faith is not denial — it is resolve.

When people gather to mourn instead of retaliate…

When strangers protect one another…

When communities respond to violence with unity rather than division…

That is faith in action.

So we light the candles.

We keep the traditions.

We hold space for grief — and still refuse to surrender love.

Not because the world has earned it,

but because faith calls us to be more than what we fear.

In a time when hatred tries to define the moment,

faith reminds us who we are.

Love despite hate.

Light despite darkness.

Hope — not because it is easy, but because it is necessary.