April 3, 2018: Love Hopes in All Things - Divine Mercy Week 9
April 3, 2018: Love Hopes in All Things - Divine Mercy Week 9
Have you ever found yourself or a loved one feeling utterly hopeless? It’s not a good place to find ourselves. We see in Mary Magdalene a glimpse of a hopeless person in the aftermath of the crucifixion of her beloved friend and teacher, Jesus. We find her outside the empty tomb weeping. She feels the emptiness of losing her Lord who awakened in her new life, joy, purpose, and peace. Now her hope is gone and replaced by fear.
This final week’s topic is, “Love hopes in all things.” It’s commonly thought that ‘hoping in all things’ means wishful thinking that life will get better on its own or it’s a kind of positive attitude that things will eventually turn out okay. St. Peter offers us a more accurate meaning when he wrote, “Through Christ you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.” (1 Peter 1:21) We have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, and this real event informs and shapes our daily thoughts and attitudes about the future. While we are still alive on this earth, we are waiting--anticipating that God will transform all suffering and evil into glory.
When our love hopes in resurrection, we look at our relationships on earth differently. Recently I was conversing with a lady whom I met for the first time. She was telling me about her son’s advanced academic achievements and how she and her son’s father were so proud. I asked how she and her husband met and married. There was a long pause. Then she began to open up about how her husband had abandoned the family only to start a new family with another woman; her son was only a toddler when it happened. She said she felt utterly fearful of her future and hopeless in those years. The only thing she clung onto was her faith; sadly, she was also saddled with a deep resentment for her ex-husband. In recent years, she experienced in her prayers a healing insight. During prayer she saw her entire life as a movement toward eternity with Heavenly Father; every person that entered her life was meant to help her grow closer to God, even if a person caused her deep pain.
There is desire in us for lasting life, beauty, and love; it is a sign that God has created in us eternal souls. There is a tendency to look back or have nostalgia for the past when we were young, healthy, beautiful, and free from suffering. When our love fails to hope in the Resurrection, for example, we mistaken our desire for lasting life and love for a desire for a younger spouse or a desire to cosmetically alter our body. In contrast, the hope for future glory of our resurrection guards our hearts, guides us to look forward, and urges us to press on to what lies ahead.
Pope Francis beautifully wrote, “Hope comes most fully into its own [when] it embraces the certainty of life after death. Each person, with all his or her failings, is called to the fullness of life in heaven. There, fully transformed by Christ’s resurrection, every weakness, darkness and infirmity will pass away. There the person’s true being will shine forth in all its goodness and beauty. This realization helps us, amid the aggravations of this present life, to see each person from a supernatural perspective, in the light of hope, and await the fullness that he or she will receive in the heavenly kingdom, even if it is not yet visible.”
Our hope in resurrection reorients our confidence toward God, trusting that He can and will change suffering and evil into glory. Although things may not always turn out as we desire, as Pope Francis wrote, “God may well make crooked lines straight and draw some good from the evil we endure in this world.”
This final week’s topic is, “Love hopes in all things.” It’s commonly thought that ‘hoping in all things’ means wishful thinking that life will get better on its own or it’s a kind of positive attitude that things will eventually turn out okay. St. Peter offers us a more accurate meaning when he wrote, “Through Christ you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.” (1 Peter 1:21) We have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, and this real event informs and shapes our daily thoughts and attitudes about the future. While we are still alive on this earth, we are waiting--anticipating that God will transform all suffering and evil into glory.
When our love hopes in resurrection, we look at our relationships on earth differently. Recently I was conversing with a lady whom I met for the first time. She was telling me about her son’s advanced academic achievements and how she and her son’s father were so proud. I asked how she and her husband met and married. There was a long pause. Then she began to open up about how her husband had abandoned the family only to start a new family with another woman; her son was only a toddler when it happened. She said she felt utterly fearful of her future and hopeless in those years. The only thing she clung onto was her faith; sadly, she was also saddled with a deep resentment for her ex-husband. In recent years, she experienced in her prayers a healing insight. During prayer she saw her entire life as a movement toward eternity with Heavenly Father; every person that entered her life was meant to help her grow closer to God, even if a person caused her deep pain.
There is desire in us for lasting life, beauty, and love; it is a sign that God has created in us eternal souls. There is a tendency to look back or have nostalgia for the past when we were young, healthy, beautiful, and free from suffering. When our love fails to hope in the Resurrection, for example, we mistaken our desire for lasting life and love for a desire for a younger spouse or a desire to cosmetically alter our body. In contrast, the hope for future glory of our resurrection guards our hearts, guides us to look forward, and urges us to press on to what lies ahead.
Pope Francis beautifully wrote, “Hope comes most fully into its own [when] it embraces the certainty of life after death. Each person, with all his or her failings, is called to the fullness of life in heaven. There, fully transformed by Christ’s resurrection, every weakness, darkness and infirmity will pass away. There the person’s true being will shine forth in all its goodness and beauty. This realization helps us, amid the aggravations of this present life, to see each person from a supernatural perspective, in the light of hope, and await the fullness that he or she will receive in the heavenly kingdom, even if it is not yet visible.”
Our hope in resurrection reorients our confidence toward God, trusting that He can and will change suffering and evil into glory. Although things may not always turn out as we desire, as Pope Francis wrote, “God may well make crooked lines straight and draw some good from the evil we endure in this world.”
