NURTURING OUR HOPE: FEEDING MY HOPE (# 9)
Virtues grow in the person who possesses them by actualizing them often. Our Christian or theological hope increases in intensity in us when we perform acts of hope, and when we pray – prayer is prayer of hope, particularly the prayer of petition.
Our theological hope grows in particular through the practice of the virtues of patience and humility. Writes Benedict XVI: “Hope is practiced through the virtue of patience, which continues to do good even in the phase of apparent failure, and through the virtue of humility, which accepts God’s mystery and trusts him even at times of darkness” (DCE 39).
How do I nurture my hope? The Sacred Scriptures continue to be the best word on hope for us: “Lord, your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path” (Ps 119:105). One of my favorite texts on hope is from Isaiah: “Those who hope in Yahweh will renew their strength. They will soar as with eagle’s wings; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and never tire” (Is 40:31). The Gospels in particular continue consoling us in the midst of the evil in the world and personal weakness and suffering. They present - with the Acts and the Epistles - a portrait of Jesus Christ as our hope, and of his resurrection as the foundation of our hope here and in heaven. Indeed, what better inspiring words than these: In Christ we live; in Christ we shall die, and in Christ we hope to live forever (cf. 1 Cor 15:20-22). Yes, indeed, “I hope that I may arrive at resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:11).
In the Gospels, we learn about Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Lady of the fiat and the magnificat, our Mother who keeps telling us: “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5). My Marian devotion, an essentially Christocentric devotion, includes the Rosary, a contemplative prayer through which Mary guides us “to ‘read’ Christ, to discover his secrets and to understand his message” (John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae). The Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God is the best witness of hope. She “never abandoned her hope and truth in God.” Mary is our Mother of Hope, Stella Maris in the turbulent sea of our life.
A continuing shining example today: the martyrs: “We need the treasure of their testimony in order to confirm our hope, and allow it to bear goof fruit” (Pope Francis, Bull of Convocation of the 2025 Jubilee Year, 3).
The saints are excellent traveling companions. Their lives and works strengthen our Christian hope. Like any saint, Saint Augustine was a hopeful Christian – and writes powerfully and elegantly on life as a pilgrimage. St. Augustine’s book of Confessions is every time I meditate on it a renewed journey to deeper conversion – and hope: “Happiness, does not consist in having more, but in needing less”; “Thou have made us for thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee’; “All my hopes are in your great mercy and nowhere else. O love that is my God set me a-fire!”
As a Dominican, St. Dominic, my spiritual father, the apostolic and evangelical man inspires my preaching and my life: the great Dominic, “never asking for reward, he just talks about the Lord.” Reading St. Thomas Aquinas, the apostle of truth (according to John Paul II), one always learns something new: Every truth, he writes, “regardless who said it, comes from the Holy Spirit.”
I continue feeding my roots – and my Christian life – with the works of St. Teresa of Avila and of St. John of the Cross. Teresa is a perennial master on prayer, of humble prayer. She advises us all: “Never leave prayer. There is always remedy for those who pray.” She consoles me: “Let nothing disturb you, / Let nothing frighten you; / All things pass away. / … Patience obtains all things;/… God alone suffices” – Solo Dios basta. St. John of the Cross is a guide on the dark night of life: “O guiding night! / O night more lovely than the dawn! / Oh night that has united/ the Lover with His beloved, / transforming the beloved in her Lover!”
Going through the desert of life, I remember the words of Urs von Balthasar: “For the servant, God is always right”! Facing a bloody war - all are -, the death of innocent children – born and unborn -, the terrible sufferings of a loved one or of a lovely soul… one is tempted to disagree. Why God’s apparent silence? I do not know, but I do know – and strongly believe – that He cares, because He loves us and his Son died for us! And I believe and hope in him and in his grace for me, for us - for all.
Among other helpful modern authors, I wish to mention as messengers of hope for me Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, and Anthony de Mello.
Life is at times – as for S. Teresa of Avila like to say - a bad night in a bad inn. Sometimes, I feel I am in the desert, alone facing the aridity and the loneliness of life. I try to realize then that my hope is a hope on the way – on the way of Christ, on the way of the cross! My Christian hope tries hard to be a patient and persevering hope, to hope with others and for others – particularly with and for the poor. Through the dark night of life I ask, “Watchman, how much longer the night?” (Is 21:11). I pray to God – and ask others to pray for me - to help me hope against hope, like Abraham (cf. Rom 4:16-18), to keep my hope in gray days (Zc 4:10).
“Hope is believing in the beatitudes in spite of appearance.” With this hope, “the one who weeps is happy now at the present time.” This is why we “hope against hope” (Jacques Ellul, Selected Spiritual Writings, 106). Hope is believing in Christ, the Son of God and our Savior, who is the Beatitude of God for us, believing id his resurrection - and in mine and yours.
And to conclude! Let us hope - always. Let us hope always with humble, patient and persevering hope. And with a deeply prayerful and joyful hope. Prayerfully, and in spite of our failures and sins, let us never despair. Our hope urges us to try - again and again and again - to do good and fight evil. Remember that trying is already a grace of God, who likes our firm and good desires. We try hard and never get discouraged.
Consoling words: If the end does not find you victorious, may it find you fighting (St. Augustine). (FGB)
