Chapter 2: Hope

“In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded.”—Psalms 30:2

Hope is a supernatural virtue by which we confidently expect, in virtue of God’s promise, the endless happiness of Heaven and the means necessary for its attainment. To be convinced of the inestimable value of this virtue, and to have a constant incentive for its practice, it will be profitable to consider the objects of our hope, its motives, its qualities, and its effects.

The first and foremost object of our hope, the object by excellence, is the possession of God in Heaven. We are not to suppose that the hope of possessing God in Heaven in any way interferes with the virtue of love. They are not opposed; in fact, the hope of eternal happiness is inseparably united with love, for only in Heaven will the completion and perfection of love be found. According to St. Thomas, with the idea of friendship is intimately united the mutual sharing of goods, for as friendship is nothing else but a mutual attraction it follows that friends must do as much good to one another as is in their power. Without this mutual sharing of goods, says the Angelic Doctor, there can be no genuine friendship. (Ia IIae, Q. 65, a. 5). Our Lord called His disciples His friends because He communicated His mysteries to them: “I have called you friends because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you.” (John15:15). According to the teaching of St. Thomas, love does not exclude the hope of the reward which God has prepared for us in Heaven; that very reward is the principal object of our love, for it is nothing but God Himself, the vision of whom is the eternal happiness of the elect. “Friendship,” says the Angelic Doctor, “requires that a friend be in possession of his friend.” This is that mutual communication or surrender of which the spouse in the Canticle speaks when she says: “My beloved is mine and I am his.” (Cant.2:16). In Heaven the soul gives itself entirely to God and God gives Himself entirely to the soul, as far as its capacity and merits will allow.

Love, says Dionysius the Areopagite, strives, in accordance with its nature, after union with the object loved; or rather, as St. Augustine remarks, love is a golden chain which binds together the hearts of the lover and the loved one. But since this union cannot be effected between those that are separated, the lover continually yearns for the presence of his beloved. When the spouse in the Canticle saw herself separated from her Beloved she was consumed with longing and begged her companions to make known to Him her anguish, to induce Him to afford her some consolation by His presence: “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I languish with love.” (Cant.5:8). A soul that tenderly loves Jesus Christ cannot live here below without the most ardent longing to be united with Him in Heaven, where He will be her reward exceeding great.

As long, therefore, as our soul is not perfectly united with God in Heaven, it will never enjoy true peace. Those who love Our Lord sincerely find peace of heart, it is true, in conformity to the will of God; but perfect peace and perfect rest they shall never have here below. This we shall acquire only with the attainment of our last end, the vision of God face to face and His ineffable love. As long as the soul is separated from her last end she shall continue to sigh with the prophet: “Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter.” (Is.38:17). Yes, my God, I live in peace in this valley of tears, for such is Thy holy will; but I cannot but remember, with unspeakable pain, that I am not as yet perfectly united with Thee, the Source of all peace and rest, the Goal of my heart’s desire. It was for this reason that the Saints yearned for their heavenly home, consumed as they were with an ardent love for God. Holy David complained about his long and weary exile: “Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged.” (Ps.119:5). Only the hope of eternal happiness could console him: “I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear.” (Ps.16:15). St. Paul desired nothing more ardently than to leave this world and to be with Christ: “I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ.” (Phil.1:23).

“The good that I hope for,” says St. Francis of Assisi, “is so great that every suffering becomes for me a pleasure.” All these expressions of ardent longing are so many acts of perfect love. St. Thomas teaches that the highest degree of love that a soul on earth can attain is an ardent desire for Heaven, to be there united to God and to possess Him forever. The greatest suffering that the souls in Purgatory endure proceeds from this longing for the possession of God, and this pain is felt especially by those who in life had but a feeble desire for Heaven. Cardinal Bellarmine thinks that in Purgatory there is a place where souls endure no pains of sense, but are tortured solely by the loss of the presence of God. (De Purg.,1.2, c. 7). St. Gregory, St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Bridget and St. Bede the Venerable cite a number of such instances where souls are tormented not on account of sins committed, but because of the absence of a desire for Heaven. There are souls that strive after perfection, but without any special desire to leave this earth and to be united to God. But since eternal life is a priceless treasure that Jesus Christ has purchased for us by His death, those souls that have but a feeble desire to possess it will have to suffer later on this account. There are three things necessary for the attainment of eternal life: the pardon of our sins, the victory over temptations, and the crown of all graces, a holy death. These three things are accordingly the objects of our hope.

THE PARDON OF OUR SINS

“Thou hast sinned, O Christian,” says St. John Chrysostom, “but dost thou desire forgiveness? Fear not, for God’s desire to grant it is greater than your desire to receive it.” If God sees an unfortunate wretch in sin, He waits for a favorable opportunity to show him mercy. At times He reveals to him the punishment he has deserved, to urge him to enter into himself. “Thou hast given a warning to them that fear thee: that they may flee from before the bow.” (Ps.59:6). At times He knocks on the door of the sinner’s heart, hoping that He may open it: “Behold I stand before the gate and knock.” (Apoc.3:20). Sometimes He goes after the sinner and calls to him like a compassionate father: Why will you be lost? “Why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezech.18:31). Dionysius says that God even begs us not to hurl ourselves into perdition. This is confirmed by the Apostle when he beseeches the sinner in the name of Jesus Christ to be reconciled with his God: “For Christ, we beseech you, be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor.5:20). St. Chrysostom remarks: Christ Himself requests you, and what is His request? “Be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor.).If, in spite of all this, there are hard and obstinate hearts that refuse to yield, what more is there that the Lord can do for them? Yet even such has He promised not to repel if they return truly repentant: “Him that cometh to me I will not cast out.” (John6:37). He declares that He is ready and willing to receive everyone who comes to Him: “Turn ye to me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you.” (Zach.1:3).

To every sinner who desires to repent, He promises pardon: “But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments and do judgment and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done.” (Ezech.18:21–22). Yes, He even goes so far as to say: “Come and accuse me: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool.” (Is.1:18). The royal Psalmist says: “A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Ps.50:19). In the Gospel of St. Luke we have a beautiful picture of the joy with which the shepherd receives the lost sheep, and the love that the father manifests on the return of the prodigal son. And these are God’s own words: “I say to you that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance.” (Luke15:7). The reason for this, according to St. Gregory, is that the repentant sinner generally loves God more ardently than the just man, who is apt to grow lukewarm in His service.

It is doubtless true that we shall have a strict account to render of all the sins we have committed, but who will be our judge? St. John tells us: “Neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son.” (John5:22). It is to our Redeemer, then, that the judgment has been entrusted, and St. Paul encourages us with the words: “Who is he that shall condemn? Christ Jesus that died, yea that is risen also again, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Rom.8:34). We shall be judged by a loving Redeemer who, to save us from eternal death, delivered Himself to death, and not content with that, now acts as our advocate with the Father in Heaven. “Why should you fear, O sinner,” says St. Thomas of Villanova, “as long as you detest your sins? How could He condemn who died that He might not have to condemn? How could He reject the repentant sinner, since He came down from Heaven to seek that sinner?”

St. Chrysostom says that every single wound of Jesus Christ is a mouth that eloquently pleads with God for the forgiveness of our sins. In the revelations of St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi we read that one day God spoke to her in the following words: “Through the revenge I took on the body of My Son, My justice has been changed into clemency. His blood cries not for vengeance, as did the blood of Abel; it asks for mercy, and My justice cannot resist its pleading. The blood of Jesus binds the hands of Justice so that they cannot be raised, as once they were, to punish.” The holy Fathers teach that he who detests the evil he has committed, can be certain of the forgiveness of his sins. Now, according to the words of St. Teresa, everyone who is ready to die rather than offend God anew can say that he truly hates his sins. If you, therefore, dear Christian, entertain sentiments such as these, why are you tortured with fear and distrust? Reanimate your courage at the sight of so many saints who lived for a long time at enmity with God, but returned to Him repentant and sorry, conscious that they dreaded a new offense against God more than death itself, and full of hope for the pardon of their sins.

St. Afra of Ratisbon was formerly a heathen and so immoral that her very home was a house of assignation. Afterward, with her mother and her whole family, she was converted to Christianity. From Ruinart’s Acts of the Martyrswe learn that the abomination of her sins was continually before her eyes and caused her intense grief. On becoming Christian, she distributed her ill-gotten gains to the poor. If there happened to be any who refused to accept what she had acquired by her offenses against God, she begged them with tears to recommend her to God that she might be pardoned her sins. Just at this time the persecution of Diocletian was raging. The saint was taken captive and brought before a judge named Cajus. “Sacrifice to the gods,” he said to her; “that will be better for you than to be tortured to death.” The saint replied: “To my grief, I sinned before I knew the true God; therefore it is impossible for me to do what you require. To sacrifice to the gods would be a fresh offense against my Divine Master, and that I will never commit.” The judge ordered her to be led to the temple to sacrifice; she replied with great firmness: “My temple is Jesus Christ who is always present to me and before whom I daily confess my sins. As I am unable to offer Him any other sacrifice, I yearn to offer Him the sacrifice of myself, that this body which has offended Him may be purified by the sufferings which I shall gladly bear.”

“But what can you expect from the God of the Christians,” said Cajus, “after the shameful life you have led? You had better sacrifice to our gods.” The saint replied: “My Saviour Jesus Christ declared that He came down from Heaven to save the sinner. In the Gospel we read that a sinful woman washed the feet of Jesus with her tears and obtained the pardon of all her sins. Moreover, the Saviour never spurned the sinner unmercifully, but we are told He received sinners and even ate with them.”

When he found that his efforts proved unavailing, Cajus said: “If you refuse to sacrifice I will have you tortured and burned alive.” The saint courageously replied: “Gladly will I submit my body to any torment, for it has been the instrument of many sins, but I will never defile my soul by sacrificing to the devil.” Thereupon the judge pronounced the sentence of death. Afra raised her eyes to Heaven and uttered the following prayer: “My Lord Jesus Christ, Thou who hast come to call not the just but sinners to repentance and hast given the sinner the assurance of pardon when he returns repentant to Thee, receive me, a poor sinner; I gladly submit to this torture for love of Thee; grant that this fire which consumes my body, may preserve my soul from Hell.” When the flames had mounted and closed above her head she was still heard to say: “I thank Thee, my Lord, that Thou who wast Innocence itself didst offer Thyself for poor sinners. O Blessed of the Father, who didst die for our wretched and sin-stained souls, I thank Thee once more and I offer myself to Thee who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.” As she ended her prayer, her soul took its flight to God.

VICTORY OVER TEMPTATION

Besides the pardon of our sins, we must confidently hope for the victory over our temptations. In order to persevere in well-doing, our confidence must not rest on our good resolutions. When we build on the foundation of our own strength our edifice is sure to fall. To maintain ourselves in the grace of God it is necessary, therefore, to place our hope in the merits of Jesus Christ. With His assistance we shall persevere till death, even though we be assailed by all the powers of earth and Hell. There may be times when temptations are so violent that sin seems unavoidable. We must be on our guard at such times not to lose courage and give up the struggle. Our only resource is to hasten to Jesus Crucified. He and He alone can sustain us. The Lord permits that from time to time even the Saints have such storms to endure. St. Paul says of himself: “We were pressed out of measure above our strength, so that we were weary even of life.” (2 Cor.1:8).

The Apostle here shows what he was when left to his own strength; and he wishes, doubtless, to teach us how God permits us at times to experience our own weakness in order that we may acknowledge our misery and “trust not in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead” (2 Cor.1:9), humbly asking His help that we may not succumb. In another place the Apostle teaches the same truth more distinctly still: “In all things we suffer tribulation, but are not distressed; we are straitened, but are not destitute . . . we are cast down, but we perish not.” (2 Cor.4:8–9). We are bowed down by sorrow and harassed by passion, but yet we do not despair. We are tossed about on a stormy sea, but we do not suffer shipwreck, because the Lord by His grace gives us strength to resist our enemies.

At the same time the Apostle bids us not to forget that we are weak and frail creatures who may easily lose the treasure of divine grace, and we can preserve it only by the power of God: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency may be of the power of God, and not of us.” (2 Cor.4:7).

Although, as we have already seen, the power to avoid sin is not from ourselves but from the grace of God, we must at the same time be careful not to render ourselves weaker than we already are. There are certain faults that we consider of no account, and yet they may be the reason why God withdraws His supernatural light, and thus the power of the devil is increased. Such faults are the desire to be regarded as learned and distinguished by the world; vanity in dress; the seeking for superfluous comforts and luxuries; the habit of showing oneself offended by every unkind word or want of attention; the inordinate desire to please others; the omission of exercises of piety from human respect; disobedience in little things; little aversions that are fostered in the heart; little lies and jokes at the expense of charity; loss of time through idle conversations or a greediness for news; in a word, every attachment for earthly things, and every gratification of self-love may give the enemy an opportunity of accomplishing our destruction. At all events, faults of this kind committed with deliberation deprive us of that assistance of Our Lord which would protect us from falling into sin.

A HAPPY DEATH

We hope, in fine, for the grace of a happy death. The hour of death is for us the time of greatest anxiety. Jesus Christ alone can give us the strength to suffer, with patience and profit, the trials of this last decisive moment. At the approach of death we have more than ever to fear from the assaults of Hell. The nearer we approach our goal, the more will Hell strive to prevent our reaching it. St. Eleazar, who had lived a life of great purity, was violently tempted in the hour of death, but he did not lose courage for a moment. To those standing around him he said: “The efforts of Hell at this moment are very great, but by the merits of His suffering our Saviour takes from them all their power.” St. Francis desired that at the hour of his death the Passion of Christ be read to him, and St. Charles Borromeo had pictures representing the suffering Saviour placed on his bed; while gazing at these he gave up his soul to God. Our Lord Jesus wished to suffer death, as St. Paul says, “that through death he might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil; and might deliver them, who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude.” (Heb.2:14–15).

Therefore, says the same Apostle, “It behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become merciful.” (Heb.2:17). The Lord wished to assume human nature and its miseries, sin and ignorance and concupiscence excepted, and why? In order that He might Himself experience our misery, the better to have compassion on us, for misery is better learned by suffering it than by seeing it in others. In this way Our Lord became more inclined to assist us in all the temptations of life, and especially at the hour of death. Should the devil therefore assail us in life or at death, bringing before us the sins of our youth, we must say to him with St. Bernard: “What I need to enter Heaven, I appropriate from the merits of Jesus Christ who suffered and died in order to procure for me that glory of which I was unworthy.” (In Cant.61).

MOTIVES FOR OUR HOPE

As to the motives on which our hope should rest, the first we find in the promises made by God. On nearly every page of Holy Scripture we find reasons for hoping in the Lord. We read there that God promises eternal salvation and the means to attain it to those who believe and pray: “All things, whatsoever you ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive; and they shall come unto you.” (Mark11:24).“Every one that asketh receiveth.” (Matt.7:8). “The Lord is the protection of all that trust in him.” (Ps.17:31). “My children behold the generations of men; and know ye that no one hath hoped in the Lord and hath been confounded.” (Ecclus.2:11). “None of them that wait on thee shall be confounded.” (Ps.24:3). “In thee, O Lord, have I hoped; I shall not be confounded forever.” (Ps.70:1). “Because he trusteth in me I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.” (Ps.90:14–15). “Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it to you.” (John16:23).

These and countless other promises are made to all men without exception. Heaven and earth shall pass away, as Scripture says, but the words and promises of God shall not pass away. “Let us therefore,” in the words of the Apostle, “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he is faithful that hath promised.” (Heb.10:23).

The second motive of our hope is the sincere desire of Our Lord to make us happy. God loves all His creatures. “Thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made.” (Wis.11:25). But every love, says St. Augustine, possesses an active force and cannot remain idle. Consequently, love contains in its very essence the idea of benevolence, and one who loves cannot but do good to the object of his love if it is at all possible for him. “Love,” says Aristotle, “endeavors to accomplish what it considers good for the object loved.” If, therefore, God loves all men, He must also desire that all men attain eternal happiness, for this is the highest and only good of man since it is the end for which man was created. “You have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end life everlasting.” (Rom.6:22).

Calvin was guilty of a horrible blasphemy when he said that God had created some men only to cast them into Hell. He even dared to assert that God forces men to sin in order that they may be damned. “God will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim.2:4). He declares that He wishes for the conversion and salvation even of the ungodly who have deserved eternal death. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” (Ezech.33:11). Tertullian calls attention to the fact that in using the words: “As I live,” the Lord pronounces an oath in order that we might believe Him without hesitation. It is therefore a matter of great surprise to the learned Petavius that anyone could call this truth into question. “If an attempt is made,” says he, “to misconstrue so clear a text of Sacred Scripture which God even confirms with an oath, what is there left in matters of faith that is safe from the falsifiers?” But why does God so ardently desire the salvation of all men? Simply because He has created them from love and He has loved them from all eternity.

“Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee.” (Jer.31:3). We read in the Epistle of St. Peter that the Lord, knowing the weakness of man, has patience with the sinner and does not wish him to be lost, but to do penance and be saved. “The Lord dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish but that all should return to penance.” (2 Peter3:9). In short, God desires to save all men and if there are some unhappy creatures who force Him, by their sins, to condemn them, He speaks to them, as it were, in tears of compassion, and says: “Why will you die, O house of Israel? Convert and live.” (Ezech.18:31–32). Why will you be lost, my children, and condemn yourselves to eternal perdition? If you have been so unhappy as to leave Me, return to Me now repentant and I will restore to you the life you have lost.

Judge for yourself then, Christian soul, if it be not true that God desires your eternal salvation. For the future, therefore, never give expression to such sentiments as: Who knows; perhaps God does not wish me to be saved! Perhaps on account of my offenses He desires me to be lost forever! Such thoughts you must banish from your mind, as it must now be evident to you that God assists you with His grace and urgently invites you to His love.

As a third and powerful motive for hope in God, we have the merits of Jesus Christ. Long before our Saviour had appeared on earth, the royal Psalmist David placed all his hope in Him: “Into thy hands I commend my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.” (Ps.30:6). How much more, therefore, ought we to place our confidence in Jesus now that He has come and accomplished the work of our redemption. Full of trust and assurance, we ought to repeat with the royal Psalmist: “Into Thy hands O Lord, I commend my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.” Thou art faithful to Thy promises.

If on account of our sins we have good reason to fear eternal death, we have still stronger motives for hope of eternal life in the merits of Jesus Christ, which are incomparably more powerful to save than our sins are to destroy us. By our sins we have deserved eternal death, but our Redeemer has come to our assistance, says the prophet Isaias, and taken upon Himself our debts in order to make satisfaction for them by His sufferings: “He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” (Is.53:4). At that unhappy moment when we committed sin, God wrote the sentence of our eternal doom. But what has Jesus Christ accomplished? He has taken this sentence of condemnation, as the Apostle says, fastened it to the Cross and blotted it out with His Precious Blood. We can never look upon that sentence without seeing the Cross on which it was destroyed, and thus our hope of forgiveness and of eternal salvation is revived: “Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us. . . . And he hath taken the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross.” (Col.2:14). “Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace; that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid.” (Heb.4:16).

The throne of grace is the Cross on which Our Lord was exalted in order to dispense mercy and grace to all who have recourse to Him. But we must go to Him at once, while we have an opportunity of finding assistance; otherwise, we may come too late, and seek in vain. Let us hasten, therefore, to the Cross of Christ and embrace it with unwavering confidence. We need not be frightened at the sight of our misery; in Christ we shall find riches and treasures of grace: “I give thanks to my God,” says the Apostle, “that in all things you are made rich in him. . . . so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace.” (1 Cor.1:4, 5, 7). The merits of Jesus Christ have opened to us the treasury of God by acquiring for us a right to all the graces that we can possibly desire.

St. Leo says that the advantages which accrue to us through the death of Jesus Christ are far greater than the losses the devil has occasioned us by sin. St. Paul tells us the same: “Not as the offense, so also the gift . . . for where sin abounded, grace did more abound.” (Rom.5:15, 20).

Therefore, our Saviour exhorts us to hope for all graces through His infinite merits. He Himself teaches us how to present our petitions to His heavenly Father: “Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you.” (John16:23). “He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things?” (Rom.8:32). According to the Apostles, therefore, God has excepted nothing, neither the forgiveness of sins, nor final perseverance, nor divine love and perfection, nor Heaven itself; “with him he hath given us all things.” The only thing for us to do is to ask Him for His graces, for “the Lord is rich unto all that call upon him.” (Rom.10:12).

CHRIST’S INTERCESSION

Do not forget, says the Venerable John of Avila, that between the Eternal Father and ourselves there is a Mediator, Jesus Christ, to whom we are united by bonds of love so strong that nothing can ever break them unless we ourselves break them by mortal sin. The blood of Jesus Christ cries for mercy in our behalf, and that cry is so loud that the clamor of our sins cannot be heard. No one is lost, therefore, because satisfaction has not been made for him, but because by the neglect of the Sacraments he fails to share in the satisfaction which Jesus Christ has made. Christ Our Lord has taken it upon Himself to remedy our ills as if they were His own. He who was without sin, took upon Himself our sins and prayed for forgiveness for them. And He prayed to His heavenly Father with as much fervor as if He were praying for Himself. What He desired, He obtained. God willed that we should be so inseparably united to Jesus Christ that He cannot be loved except we be loved with Him; nor can we be hated except He be hated with us. But now Jesus cannot be hated; therefore, we shall be loved as long as we remain united to Him by love.

Jesus is loved by His heavenly Father; therefore we are loved with Him. He is far more powerful to win God’s love for us than we are to draw His hatred on ourselves, for God loves His Divine Son more than He hates the sinner. Our Lord spoke thus to His heavenly Father: “Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me, may be with me.” (John17:24). As love is stronger than hatred, love carries off the victory. Our sins are forgiven and the love of God bestowed on us and the strength of the bond of love gives us the assurance that God will never forsake us. “Can a woman forget her infant . . . ?” says the prophet Isaias; “and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee in my hands.” (Is.49:15–16).

The Lord has written us in His hands with His own blood. Therefore we should allow nothing to disquiet us, for He arranges and disposes everything with these very hands which were nailed to the Cross as a proof of His love for us.

THE INTERCESSION OF THE BLESSED MOTHER

A fourth motive for unbounded confidence is the powerful intercession of Mary our Mother. St. Bernard says that we have access to the Eternal Father through His Divine Son, who is a mediator of justice. But we have access to the Son through His holy Mother, who is the mediatrix of grace and who, by her intercession, has obtained for us what Jesus Christ has merited by His death. “Through thee who hast found grace, may we have access to the Son, O Mother of our Salvation, in order that through thee He may receive us who through thee was given to us.” All goods and graces, therefore, that we receive from God come to us through the intercession of Mary. And why is this? St. Bernard replies: “Because God has wished it so.”

A further reason of this privilege of Mary, St. Augustine gives us when he says: “Mary can rightly be called our Mother because by her love she contributed towards giving us the life of grace and making us members of the mystic body of Christ.” As Mary, therefore, by her love contributed towards the spiritual regeneration of the faithful, God has willed that through her intercession all men shall obtain the life of grace here and the life of glory hereafter. On this account the Church desires us to invoke her as “our life, our sweetness and our hope.” Accordingly, St. Bernard exhorts us to have constant recourse to this divine Mother because her petitions are certainly answered. “Hasten to Mary,” he writes, “for I say it without hesitation, the Son will certainly hear the Mother. She is the ladder of safety for poor sinners. She is my greatest assurance; she is the only ground of my hope.” He calls Mary a ladder for sinners, for as you cannot mount to the third round before putting the foot on the second, nor to the second before reaching the first, so you can reach God only through Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ only through Mary. The Saint calls Mary his greatest assurance and the only ground of his hope, for it is his firm conviction that God desires all graces that He bestows on us to come through the hands of Mary.

Be of good heart then, ye children of Mary! You know that she regards as her children all who desire to be so. Courage, therefore, and confidence! How can you fear that you will ever perish when such a Mother defends and protects you? He who loves this good Mother and places himself under her protection can say with St. Bonaventure: “I rejoice and am glad, for my sentence on judgment day depends on Jesus my Brother and on Mary my Mother.” This very thought filled St. Anselm with consolation and joy: “O blessed confidence! O safe refuge!” he cried, “The Mother of God is also my Mother; with what security I can hope for eternal happiness, for that happiness depends on the decision of a good Brother and on a compassionate Mother.”

QUALITIES OF HOPE

We shall now devote our attention to the qualities that should characterize our hope. First of all, our hope must be firm and unwavering. “Hope of eternal happiness,” according to St. Thomas, “is the confident expectation of this happiness.” With this doctrine the Council of Trent agrees when it says: “We must all confidently hope for the assistance of God; for as God has begun the good work in us, He wills to complete it, provided we make use of His grace; both the desire and its realization are from Him.” (Sess.6, ch.18). This is what the Apostle St. Paul taught in his letter to Timothy: “I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that day.” (2 Tim.1:12). In this we see the distinction between Christian hope and that which is purely human. With human hope there is always connected the fear that the person who has made a promise has changed or will change his mind. Christian hope, on the contrary, which looks to eternal salvation, has no doubt or fear whatever regarding God. The Lord is able and willing to grant us eternal happiness, and what is more He has promised it to all who keep His commandments; for this end He pledges Himself to grant to all who seek them the graces necessary to fulfill His commands. It is nevertheless true that even Christian hope is not altogether free from a certain fear; but as St. Thomas says: “We have nothing to fear on the part of God, but only from ourselves.” It is quite possible that we may fail to cooperate with God’s grace and even place obstacles in its way.

The Council of Trent was right, therefore, in condemning the innovators for saying that man has no freedom of will, and that each one must have an infallible certainty with regard to his perseverance in grace and eternal happiness. This doctrine the Council condemned because, as we have just seen, our cooperation is necessary for the attainment of eternal happiness—and this cooperation is uncertain. God desires, therefore, that on the one hand we foster a certain anxiety in order that we may not, by trusting to our own strength, be put to confusion; but on the other hand He wishes us to be absolutely certain that it is His Will to make us eternally happy and that He will give us all the graces we need if we but ask Him. We should therefore trust with unwavering confidence in His goodness. St. Thomas says: “We must confidently expect eternal happiness from the power and mercy of God, believing firmly that God can make us happy and that He wishes to do so.”

It sometimes happens that, owing to spiritual aridity or the disquiet resulting from a fault we have committed, we feel an absence of that sensible confidence in prayer which we would gladly experience. We must not on that account cease to pray, because God will very likely hear us sooner then than at other times, since we are apt to pray with greater distrust in ourselves and more hope in the goodness and fidelity of God. Oh how pleasing and acceptable it is to God when in fear and dread and every temptation we hope against hope; that is to say, when in spite of a feeling of mistrust arising from our own misery, we nevertheless trust in Him, as did the Patriarch Abraham, whom the Apostle praises because “against hope he believed in hope.” (Rom.4:18).

Secondly, our hope must be founded on God alone. The Lord forbids us to place our trust in creatures: “Put not your trust in princes.” (Ps.145:2). “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man.” (Jer.17:5). God desires us not to build on creatures because He does not want us to be attached to them with inordinate love. St. Vincent de Paul advises us not to count much on the protection of men, for if we do the Lord will withdraw from us; on the other hand, the more we grow in the love of God the more we will trust in Him. “I have run the way of thy commandments when thou didst enlarge my heart” (Ps. 118:32), by confidence.

But someone may say: If God alone is our hope, how can the Church address Mary as “Our hope”? Let us listen to what St. Thomas says on this point. We can place our hope in anyone, says the Saint, in a twofold manner; we can regard one as the principal and ultimate cause of our hope, or as the secondary and mediate cause. For example, one may hope for a favor from a king and from his minister or favorite. The king would be the principal or ultimate cause from which he hopes, the minister or favorite the mediate or intercessory. If the latter grants the favor, it comes nevertheless from the former, but through the intercession of the latter.

Now as the King of Heaven is Infinite Goodness itself, He desires to enrich us with His graces; but as great confidence on our part is necessary to obtain them, He has, in order to increase our confidence, given us His own Mother as our Mother and mediatrix to assist us. Therefore He wishes us to place our hope of salvation and of all goods and graces in her. According to the words of the prophet, they who put their trust in creatures are cursed. This passage refers to those who disregard their God and place their hope in the friendship and favor of man. But those who hope in Mary, the Mother of God, who has the power to obtain for them grace and eternal life, will be blessed by God. They give great joy to His loving heart, for He desires to see honored and loved that exalted creature who on earth loved and honored Him more than all men and angels together. We are right therefore in calling the Blessed Virgin our hope, for by means of her intercession we hope to obtain what we never could obtain by our feeble prayers alone. We beg her for her intercession, says Suarez, in order that the dignity of the intercessor may supply what is wanting in us. By invoking Mary with confidence, we manifest no distrust in the mercy of God, but simply fear on account of our own unworthiness. Holy Church is justified therefore in calling Mary “The Mother of holy hope,” and by this she wishes to say that Mary awakens in us the hope of the inestimable goods of eternity.

Thirdly, our hope must be an active hope. In order that our hope may not be in vain it must labor; that is to say, to unbounded confidence in God we must unite the use of the means of salvation and sanctification which the Divine Majesty has given us; otherwise we should belong to those idle souls who tempt the Lord. We must act as if the obtaining of our salvation depended entirely on ourselves, and yet we must place all our confidence in God and be thoroughly convinced that of ourselves we are utterly unable to attain what we desire. God accomplishes everything by means of His grace, but He nevertheless desires our cooperation. If this cooperation, insignificant though it is, be wanting, God withdraws from us and treats us as indolent servants deserving of naught but to be cast out into exterior darkness. “Wherefore, brethren, labor the more, that by good works, you may make sure your calling and election.” (2 Peter 1:10).

But what have we to do? Above all things we must pray. And how long must we pray? Until, says St. John Chrysostom, we hear the favorable sentence that assures us of eternal salvation. And he adds: He who says: “I will not stop praying until I am eternally happy,” will certainly be eternally happy. “Know you not,” says the Apostle, “that they that run in the race all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain.” (1 Cor.9:24). In order to be eternally happy it is not enough, therefore, merely to pray; we must continue to pray until we are in possession of the crown that God has promised us.

If we desire to be happy for all eternity we must imitate David the prophet, who kept his eyes always directed to the Lord in order to implore His help and not be overcome by his enemies: “My eyes are ever towards the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the snare.” (Ps.24:15). The devil is never tired of laying snares for our destruction: “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter5:8). Therefore we must keep our weapons ever in our hands to defend ourselves against such an enemy. We must say with the royal Psalmist: “I will pursue my enemies . . . until they are consumed.” (Ps.17:38). But how shall we win so important and difficult a victory? Only by prayer, says St. Augustine, and persevering prayer. But how long must it last? As long as the struggle goes on. Just as the contest never ceases, says St. Bonaventure, so we must never cease calling on God for His assistance, which is necessary for us so as not to succumb. “Woe to them that have lost patience,” says the Wise Man (Ecclus.2:16), and have given up prayer. Blessed shall we be “if we hold fast the confidence and glory of hope unto the end.” (Heb.3:6).

By means of the assistance we receive through prayer we must endeavor to keep the Commandments of God and do violence to ourselves so as not to yield to the temptations of Hell: “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent bear it away.” (Matt.11:12). We must do violence to ourselves in temptations by conquering ourselves and mortifying our senses so as not to be overcome by the enemy of our souls. And when we have been guilty of a fault, says St. Ambrose, let us do violence to the Lord by prayers and tears in order to obtain His forgiveness. To inspire us with courage the Saint continues: “O blessed violence that God does not punish with His wrath but receives with mercy and reward! The greater this violence the more pleasing it is to Jesus Christ.” He concludes with the following words: “We must rule over ourselves by subduing our evil passions in order to win Heaven which Jesus Christ has merited for us.”

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.”—Matt. 22:37.