Christians know that they can always turn to God and that God’s hand will always be available to help them
The subject of hope is very up-to-date. Lately, the Pope has been insisting a lot that we raise our hearts towards this virtue. He has determined that the central message of the new jubilee should be hope. Furthermore, today, there are many who have fallen into pessimism, despair, depression, and other mental illnesses, and, finally, those who are having a very bad time, because they have lost hope and illusion. Our world is in great need of hope. In this, the Church can help a lot, since faith is what gives the most hope. Giving hope is one of the great tasks of the Church in the world today.
God is love, and nothing but love, infinite love. The created world responds to a design of love, to a paternal heart, to a great heart. The cosmos is the house that God has prepared for man. History does not develop in a blind way. Divine providence exists, God accompanies us. God takes great care of us, and does us much good. God only allows evil so that a greater good can be achieved. Thus, everything has a wonderful meaning. In the midst of all that we are not able to understand, we know that we are God’s little creatures, that our situation is like that of a child wrapped up in his cradle, kissed effusively by his father. And to feel so loved is wonderful!
Everything is for the good of those who love God. It is enough that you love him, so that everything that happens to you, whatever it may be, is for your good, and, for this very reason, everything has a very positive dimension.
Furthermore, whoever lives loving God, whatever the circumstances, is living the fullest life possible, is fulfilling himself to the fullest as a man, and his soul is satisfied, happy and content.
Jesus is the one who loves you the most. Providence has even gone so far as to say that Christ, the God-Man, has given his life for the love of us, so that we can reach heaven, to great happiness.
In a word, faith makes us see that human life has been designed to be completely wrapped in a fantastic mantle. Christian faith places before our eyes marvellous horizons.
For someone who feels as if the world is falling on him and at the same time knows nothing of God’s beneficial action on the world, it must be difficult not to become discouraged and despairing. If, in addition, he believes that everything happens in an inflexible, blind and totally merciless way, how difficult it will be for him to keep his nights from being sleepless and atrocious. How then will he not be waiting for events to explode over his head? How will he not feel completely helpless and submerged in a dark and gloomy night, waiting for the fatal sentence of the outcome of the events? But to hope without having any reason to hope for anything positive is not to despair? How can one not then feel overcome by a strange feeling, a kind of total, absolute depression of one’s entire being, an infinite apathy? And, with the passage of time, how can anguish and grief not reach a climax?
Despair is a very serious problem, which has been the cause of many suicides. Currently, for example, in Catalonia (Spain), the first cause of mortality among young people is suicide.
Certainly, the experience of someone who falls into the sea and does not know where to hold on to is very different from that of someone who knows that he always has a hold on to. The Christian knows that he can always turn to God and that the hand of God will always be at his disposal to help him.
There is a big difference between seeing this world as a monster that is going to devour me, and that is following the law of inflexible necessity, and seeing reality as a hand stronger than the world, on whose help I can count, thanks to love, that in every circumstance wants to caress me.
What happiness, then, is that of those who live the Catholic faith, and the consequent hope, which gives so much light, illusion, joy and peace to lives. Enthusiasts!
Even more, as Monsignor Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer said: I do not want this or that, I am more envious, I want everything, I want God, I want holiness. Ideal of ideals! The great ideal: Him!
