Not in despair, but in hope

The last writer in the Book of Mormon is a man named Moroni, the son of Mormon. Mormon and Moroni were some of the last believers in Christ and over the course of a generations long war watched their entire nation, the Nephites, be destroyed.

The last words of Mormon are describing the final battle that leaves just himself, his son, and twenty-two other men, alive from the Nephite nation. Mormon gives the record we now have as the Book of Mormon to his son and Moroni tells us that his father and the other twenty-one Nephites have been killed and he is a hunted man by the opposing army.

3 And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. But behold, they are gone, and I fulfil the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not.

4 Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the earth; and whither I go it mattereth not.

5 Behold, my father hath made this record, and he hath written the intent thereof. And behold, I would write it also if I had room upon the plates, but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone. My father hath been slain in battle, and all my kinsfolk, and I have not friends nor whither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not.
Mormon 8:3-5 (emphasis added)

It’s interesting hearing people try to project on to Moroni how he must have felt in this state. He is alone. There are no people he can talk to. He has watched his family and everyone he cares about be brutally killed. If he sees another human he can be guaranteed they will try to kill him. One word I have often heard for how he must have felt is “despair.” But I don’t see that. That’s the wrong word. Despair means without hope, to have given up.

Moroni had hope. The fact that he wrote Mormon 7 clear through Moroni 10 shows he had hope. A hopeless man would not expend the effort that would require.

It is not in a state of hopelessness that anyone can truly say to God and mean it “thy will be done” as Moroni does when he says that the length of his life is in the Lord’s hands, and he’s okay with that. When I’ve been in the despairs of my life (and my own despairs were bad enough for my life. I will not compare them to others and say mine, or theirs, “aren’t that bad.” I will not minimize the trials of anyone that way), the last thing I could do is turn to God with faith and hope and truthfully say “my life is in your hands.”

Yes, Moroni mourns the loss of his family and friends and his entire nation. But mourning the death of a loved one does not have to lead to despair. You can miss someone and still have hope. Sorrow at loss is not despair.

11 And the bodies of many thousands are laid low in the earth, while the bodies of many thousands are moldering in heaps upon the face of the earth; yea, and many thousands are mourning for the loss of their kindred, because they have reason to fear, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are consigned to a state of endless wo.

12 While many thousands of others truly mourn for the loss of their kindred, yet they rejoice and exult in the hope, and even know, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are raised to dwell at the right hand of God, in a state of never-ending happiness.

14 And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing—sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life.
Alma 28:11-12, 14 (emphasis added)

Yes, Moroni is alone. But he is not lonely. Christ said “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (see John 14:16-19). If you keep the commandments you do not need to be lonely when you are alone.

It is not a man devoid of hope who can finish his record, after unnumbered years of wandering without friends or family in this life, in this manner:

And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen.
Moroni 10:34

Moroni was alone. Moroni surely sorrowed at the deaths of those close to him. But Moroni had hope. He was not a man of despair. To say otherwise is to underestimate the power of hope.