Mother of Hope
Have you ever felt like some things in your life are just falling apart? Well, sin has made quite a mess in our world and in our lives. We experience fear, anxiety, brokenness of many kinds, our relationships suffer ... I am sure I do not have to name it all. Each one of us carries our own burdens. Each one of us is broken in our own specific way. Each one of us struggles in some way especially in these days of limited socialisation and constant News announcements.
A few weeks ago I was kneeling in front of the Blessed Sacrament in Adoration. I grabbed my Bible and opened it. There was one verse that touched my heart so profoundly that I wanted to share it with you:
Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become ´the father of many nations´, according to what was said, ´So numerous shall your descendants be´ (Rom 4; 18).
Hoping against hope! This is the answer. We have hope or rather we SHOULD have hope.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:
The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. (1818)
Beautiful words, aren't they? Yet sometimes we don't know HOW to hope and what this virtue really looks like in practice. How do I not lose hope in the midst of my own mess and confusion? How can I keep going when I lose a job? When a relationship goes wrong? When I feel lost in life? When I fall into that sin again and again...?
We need someone to help us on this journey
That someone is Mary. Our Lady lived fully in hope while on this earth and continues living it now constantly interceding for her children, lovingly and tirelessly leading us to Jesus. Just look at her life:
She gave us the greatest Hope by giving birth to our Lord, Jesus Christ. She became the channel of hope for all the people. Opening her heart to God´s will, Mary at the same time opened the way for Hope to be born in this world.
Mother Mary lived hope all her life and she will gladly teach us to do the same. Firstly she said: “fiat voluntas tua” (May your will be done!) and then faced all kinds of hardships in her life. She could have given up. But she didn't. She lived in hope when she fled to Egypt to save her Child and right through Jesus’ life, she was there for Him until the end, when she witnessed His death. Did she ever lose Hope? No, she didn’t!
Throughout history, Mary has appeared numerous times in many places. She continues spreading messages of hope all over the world through her apparitions. Remember what she said to St. Juan Diego in Guadalupe:
Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?
Mary is always here to encourage us and to give us hope. She reminds us how she loves us and how Jesus loves us. Our Mother was the witness of the crucifixion of her beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the King of heaven and earth! Yet after that her eyes beheld the glory of the resurrected Christ. She believes in us and encourages us to have hope because her hope is not bothered by the sin of the world but is rooted in the victory of her Son.
So...what can we do?
We are encouraged to have the same attitude. After all, as St Pope John Paul II said:
We are the Easter people and Hallelujah is our song.
That is our identity. We are called to be the people of hope like Mary. If we truly believe in Christ and his victory on the cross we know that there's always hope. God is for us, not against us and he gave us Mary to remind us of this truth.
Sometimes to have hope is an act of bravery. Dear friends, I encourage you to be brave. Dare to hope that for every cross theres a resurrection. Dare to hope like Mary. Let us turn to her in every affliction, in our confusion and fear. Because God truly is good!
Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. (Lam 3: 21-22 NLT)