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"Against hope. . . in hope." Rom. 4: 18
Heroic hope is the eminent degree of this virtue, which makes
us tend toward God, the object of eternal beatitude, relying, in order
to reach Him, on the help He promised us.(1) The formal motive of
infused and theological hope is God Himself ever helpful,
Deus auxilians, or helpful Omnipotence. As long as
the Christian has not reached perfection, his hope lacks
firmness; it is more or less unstable, in the sense that the soul
sometimes allows itself to slip into presumption when all is going
well, and to fall subsequently into a certain discouragement when some
undertaking does not succeed. Above these fluctuations, heroic
hope is characterized by invincible firmness and trusting
abandonment, sustained by unwavering fidelity to duty. The heroic
confidence of the saints is also shown by its effects: it restores
the courage of others and arouses hunger and thirst after the justice
of God. THE INVINCIBLE FIRMNESS OF PERFECT HOPE
The Council of Trent tells us: "We should all have a most firm hope in
the help of God; for if we do not resist His grace, as He has begun
the work of salvation in us, He will finish it, working in us both to
will and to accomplish, as St. Paul says (Phil. 2: 13)." (2)
The invincible firmness of hope appears, we have seen, in the passive
purification of the spirit when, to make us hope purely in
Him, the Lord permits every human help to disappear. Then occur
rebuffs, at times calumnies, which give rise to a certain mistrust in
those who until then had been helpful. In addition, the tried soul has
a clearer view of its own wretchedness; it is likewise at times
depressed by illness, and must overcome strong temptations to
discouragement or even to despair, proceeding from the enemy of all
good. The soul must then hope supernaturally and heroically against
all human hope, as St. Paul says of Abraham, who, although nearly a
hundred years old, did not despair of becoming the father of a great
number of nations, according to the promise which had been given to
him: "So shall thy seed be." (3) If this trial is courageously
endured, hope grows stronger and stronger during it and is increased
tenfold. However, it does not give us absolute certitude that
individually we shall be saved, since that would require a special
revelation; (4) but we hope increasingly for salvation with a
certitude of tendency. Just as under the direction of Providence, the
animal's instinct tends infallibly toward its end, the swallow toward
the country to which it should return, so under the direction of faith
in the divine promises we tend infallibly toward eternal life. (5)
This firmness in tending toward eternal life should be invincible
because of the formal motive on which it rests: God who always aids
us, according to His promises. In spite of rebuffs, contradictions,
the sight of our wretchedness and our sins, we should always hope in
God, who has promised His help to those who ask Him for it with
humility, trust, and perseverance. "Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. . . .
And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a
stone? Or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? . . . If you
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them
that ask Him!" (6) And if we must ask conditionally for temporal
goods, in the measure in which they are useful to our salvation, we
should ask unconditionally, humbly to be sure, but with absolute
trust, for the graces necessary to persevere. And as St. Luke relates
in the text just quoted, we should thus ask not only for the graces
necessary for our sanctification, but for the Holy Ghost Himself, the
gift par excellence. He is sent anew when the soul passes from one
degree of charity to another that is notably higher, as it must be,
for the soul to pass through the trials which are ordered precisely to
this progress. Hope thus purified becomes invincible, according to the
words of St. Paul, which have sustained the martyrs: "If God be for
us, who is against us?" (7) The Lord has more than once said to His
saints: "You shall lack help only when I lack power." St. Teresa of
the Child Jesus used to say: "Even if I were the greatest sinner on
earth, I should not have less trust in God, for my hope does not rest
upon my innocence, but on God's mercy and omnipotence."
St. Paul grasped all the sublimity of this formal motive of hope when
he wrote: "And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me,
there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet
me. For which thing thrice I besought the Lord that it might depart
from me. And He said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for power
is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly, therefore, will I glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause
I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in
persecutions, in distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I
powerful": (8) that is, I cease to trust in myself, that I may trust in
God: "I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me." (9) It is
expedient to say to oneself then, as a holy soul used to say: Of
ourselves we are nothing, but through our Lord we are something, since
He loves us and redeemed us by His blood.
The story is told that one day St. Philip Neri went through the
cloisters of his monastery exclaiming in a loud voice: "I am in
despair, I am in despair." His spiritual sons, astonished, said to
him: "Is it possible, you, Father, who so many times have restored our
trust?" Leaping joyfully, St. Philip replied in his characteristic
way: "Yes, left to myself, I am hopeless; but by the grace of our
Lord, I still have confidence." He had doubtless had a very strong
temptation to discouragement, which he overcame in this fashion. He thus
experienced the truth that one must be crushed in order to
grow, to be configured to Him of whom Isaias says: "He was
wounded for our iniquities." (10) St. Paul of the Cross had the same
experience over a long period of years when he had to suffer in order
to unify the Order of Passionists which he had founded, an order that
was to bear especially the marks of our Savior's passion.(11)
TRUSTING ABANDONMENT AND UNWAVERING FIDELITY
Heroic hope manifests itself not only by its firmness, but by
trusting abandonment to Providence and to the omnipotent goodness of
God. Perfect abandonment differs from quietism because it is
accompanied by hope and unwavering fidelity to duty, even in little
things, from moment to moment, according to our Lord's words: "He
that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that which
is greater." (12) He will receive the divine help to undergo martyrdom
if necessary. Unwavering fidelity to the will of God signified in the
duty of the present moment prepares the soul to abandon itself with
entire confidence to the as yet unrevealed divine will of good
pleasure, on which depend its future and eternity. The more faithful
the soul is to the divine light received, the more it can abandon
itself wholly to Providence, to divine mercy and omnipotence. Thus are
harmonized in the soul the activity of fidelity and the passivity of
abandonment, above restless, fruitless agitation and slothful quiet.
At those times when all may seem lost, the soul repeats with the
Psalmist: "The Lord ruleth me; and I shall want nothing. . . . For
though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evils, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they have
comforted me." (13)
In its greatest difficulties, the tried soul remembers the holy man
Job, who, after losing all he possessed, exclaimed: "The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away. As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it
done. Blessed be the name of the Lord." (14) The tried soul should
also repeat the words of the Book of Proverbs: "Have confidence in the
Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence. In all
thy ways think on Him, and He will direct thy steps." (15)
The Psalmist likewise says: "In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me
never be confounded." (16) When all seemed lost, St. Teresa used to
say: "Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou canst do all, and Thou
lovest me." To give oneself up to His love and in advance to accept
all from this love rests the soul and makes it victorious over
temptations to murmur. This temptation is sometimes formulated as
follows: "O Lord, why dost Thou not come to my help?" We should
remember that nothing escapes Providence, that the Lord watches over
us, that there is a precious grace in the cross
which He sends us, and that "His commiserations have not failed."
(17)
St. John of the Cross used often to say: "O heavenly hope, which
obtains as much as it hopes for!"
Heroic hope, moreover, rests more and more on the infinite merits of
our Savior, on the value of the blood He shed for us. No matter what
happens, even though the world should crumble, we should hope in the
good Shepherd, who gave His life for His sheep, and in God the Father,
who, after having given us His own Son, cannot refuse to come to the
aid of those who have recourse to Him.(18)
In The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, the Lord says: "This true
and holy hope is more or less perfect, according to the degree of love
which the soul has for Me, and it is in the same measure that it
tastes My Providence." (19) This spiritual taste is greatly superior to
sensible consolations. In fact, not only does the perfect soul
believe in Providence, but more and more discovers its manifestations
where it least expected them. It tastes Providence by the gift of
wisdom which shows it all things in God, even painful and unforeseen
events, making it foresee the higher good for which He permits them.
In the same chapter of The Dialogue we read: "Those who serve Me
disinterestedly, with the sole hope of pleasing Me, taste My
Providence more than those who expect a recompense for their service
in the joy which they find in Me. . . . Perfect and imperfect are the
object of My attentions; I shall not fail any, provided
they have not the presumption to hope in themselves." (20)
The more disinterested we are, the more we taste Providence
see it in the course of our life, abandon ourselves to it and to the
direction of our two great Mediators, who do not cease to watch over
us. With trust in our Lord grows that in Mary, universal Mediatrix.
She, who at the foot of the cross made the greatest act of hope when
all seemed lost, merited to be called Mary Help of Christians, Our
Lady of Perpetual Help. We know that frequent recourse to her is a
special sign of predestination.
THE HEROIC CONFIDENCE OF THE SAINTS RESTORES HOPE IN THEIR COMPANIONS
That the heroic confidence of the saints revives the hope of their
companions is particularly evident in the lives of the founders of
religious orders. When they had neither money nor human support, when
vocations were lacking or slow in coming, when they met with scarcely
anything but mistrust and contradiction, they placed their confidence
in God and lifted up the hope of their first sons, who remained
faithful. (21)
On more than one occasion miracles have rewarded their trust. When
there was only a loaf of bread for the brethren of the convent of
Bologna, St. Dominic gave the loaf to a poor man asking for alms. The
saint put his trust in God, and angels came from heaven to bring the
necessary bread to the religious.
Blessed Raymond of Capua relates that St. Catherine of Siena "was
accustomed to say to us when some one of my brethren and I feared some
peril: 'Why do you concern yourselves? Let divine Providence act. When
your fears are greatest, it is always watching over you and will not
cease to provide for your salvation.'" (22) Such is perfect, entirely
trustful abandonment, united to sustained fidelity to daily duty.
The Lord Himself said to St. Catherine of Siena during very trying
times: "My daughter, think of Me; if thou dost so, I shall
unceasingly think of thee." (23) This trust in God enabled the saint to
restore the courage of her companions during the exceptional mission
entrusted to her of bringing the pope from Avignon to Rome, a mission
which she accomplished in the midst of the greatest difficulties. The
Sovereign Pontiff's entourage did everything possible to discredit the
saint; in spite of this almost incredible opposition, the daughter of
the dyer of Siena, trusting implicitly in our Lord, succeeded
perfectly in her task.
How many discouraged souls, like young Nicholas Tuldo who was condemned
to death, she raised up!
When she offered herself for the reformation of the Church, the Lord
gave her the following counsel for herself and her spiritual children:
"You ought to offer to Me the vessel of many fatiguing actions, in
whatever way I send them to you, choosing, after your own fashion,
neither place, nor time, nor actions. Therefore the vessel should be
full, that is, you should endure all those fatigues with affection of
love and true patience, supporting the defects of your neighbor, with
hatred and displeasure of sin. . . . So, endure manfully, even unto
death, and this will be a sign to Me that you love Me; and you should
not turn your faces away and look askance at the plough, through fear
of any creature or of any tribulation; rather, in such tribulations
should you rejoice. . . . After your sorrow I will give you most
sustaining consolation, with much substance in the reformation of the
holy Church." (24)
The Lord sustains the hope of His saints by words like those He
addressed to Joan of Arc in her prison: "Do not fail to esteem your
martyrdom; as a result of it, you will finally come to the kingdom of
paradise." The saints place their trust more and more in helpful
omnipotence, saying to themselves: "God is stronger than all"; and
their immolation itself is a triumph which configures them to our
Savior. With Him they thus win the victory over sin and the devil. To
persevere in the struggle, they ask the Lord to give them the sincere
desire to share in His sacred humiliations, and in this desire to find
strength, peace, and occasionally joy that they may revive the courage
of those about them.
In the same proportion as charity grows, the fear of suffering diminishes
and that of sin increases without weakening trust. The
more closely we are united to God by charity, the more we fear sin,
which would separate us from Him, and the more we trust in Him who
loves us and draws us to Himself.(25)
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