Diocese of Gary

Even When All Seems Lost, Hope Offers Meaning, Vision For Life

April 27, 2008

Hope is a virtue that gives great meaning to our lives.  It provides us with a vision for a purposeful future.  The importance of hope is never more evident to me than at the time of a funeral.  I frequently wonder how people without hope anchored in Jesus find the courage to move forward with their lives at the time of a death of a loved one.

Last November 30, Pope Benedict XVI issued his second encyclical with the title:  "In Hope We Were Saved."  The Holy Father describes how we might grow in this important virtue through prayer, suffering, and reflecting on the Last Judgment.

Even when no one else cares to listen to me, God cares and God listens.  In prayer, I can always pour out what's in the depths of my heart and I can listen to God's comforting words offering direction and hope.

The pope gave Cardinal Nguyen Van Thun, a prisoner in Vietnam for 13 years, nine of them in solitary confinement, as an example of a man whose very life was sustained through the hope he found in prayer.  Before he recently died, the cardinal left a precious little book, Prayers of Hope.  He described how he found power in listening and speaking to God in his seemingly hopeless situation for those 13 years.

St. Augustine taught that our hearts are restless until we rest in a desire for God.  We grow in hope as we surrender ourselves to our good and loving God each day with a posture of open hearts and open hands.

Secondly, the pope suggests that we will grow in hope as we learn to accept our limitations and sufferings in ordinary human living.  In his words:  "It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it, and finding meaning through our union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love."

The Holy Father quotes a vivid passage from a letter by the Vietnamese martyr, Paul Le-Bao-Tinh (d. 1857):  "In the midst of these torments, which usually terrify others, I am, by the grace of God, full of joy and gladness, because I am not alone - Christ is with me."

Perhaps you have noticed how some people become very bitter through their sufferings and crosses while others, who bear their crosses in union with Christ with a spirit of joy, grow personally in hope and become more compassionate with others who are suffering.

Finally, Pope Benedict suggests that we grow in the virtue of hope by reflecting upon the Final Judgment.  The injustices that we observe in our world and in our own lives are not the final word.  God is justice and God creates justice.  In the end, God sets all things right.  He holds out to us a destiny where there are no more tears and no more suffering.

The Last Judgment scene as depicted in St. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 25, is a source of consolation and hope for us:  "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, escorted by all the angels in heaven...He will say to those on His right:  'Come, you have my Father's blessing!  Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food...'"

It is a great comfort to know that we have a future; our lives will not end in emptiness.  With St. Paul, we can say:  "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God...neither death, nor life, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, Our Lord"  (Romans 8:28,38).