Song for Reflection: Be Thou My Vision
As alluded to in the introduction, the theological virtue of hope is a gift from God, rather than simply the natural passion of hope which we share with the animals (St. Thomas Aquinas) - like hoping it doesn’t rain or that we have a good trip…
 
According to St. Thomas, hope strives toward something that is possible, namely eternal life. 

God is both the good we hope to attain - and - the one by whose grace we hope to attain our end.
 
Christian hope isn’t like hoping to win the lottery (against extreme odds) 
Allow me to draw from paragraphs 1813 and 1817 through 21 of the Catechism.
Here, we read that the theological virtues:

• allow us to participate in the divine nature
• related directly to God
• enable us to live in relationship with the Trinity.

And, hope, in particular:

• Urges us to desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life,
• relying on Christ's promises and the grace of the Holy Spirit.
• is tied to the Beatitudes and the promises of God,
• is a weapon in the struggle for salvation.

In preparing this retreat, I thought about my experience working the night shift.  I had been asked to work unexpectedly.  After finishing my work of cleaning and probably laundry, I was waiting in the hall for the nurse to come so I could go sleep.  The words of Psalm 130 were fresh in my mind since we had been praying it every evening for our deceased Sister. 
 
I was quite tired since I hadn’t slept for nearly 24 hours.  I could really relate to this passage and thought: “So this is how the watchmen referred to in the psalm felt.  “My soul is waiting for the Lord, I count on His word.  My soul is longing for the Lord, more than watchmen for daybreak.  Let the watchman count on daybreak and Israel on the Lord.”
 
We see a beautiful example of this hoping in the Lord in the Carmelite nuns at Compiègne who were guillotined during the reign of terror following the French revolution.  They knew their death was imminent and prayed for a year, seeking the grace they would need and offering themselves for the salvation of France.
 
These sixteen nuns, one by one, went to their death singing the Veni Creator Spiritus.  Each asked permission to die from their superior and bravely went, youngest to oldest.
 
Interestingly , the revolutionary government fell ten days after their execution.
 
Pope Benedict, in his document, Spe Salve and his treatise on Virtues, teaches us a lot about hope.  Hope allows us to face our current circumstances in view of our goal; heaven is our goal.
 
The Catechism shares that hope opens up our hearts in expectation of eternal beatitude (aka heaven) (par. 1818) .
 
These are strong words – expectation of heaven!
 
I’d like to share a lovely quote from St. Teresa of Avila:
“Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. Dream that the more you struggle,  the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end” 
 
In the past several years, I’ve walked with a couple of people close toward death – my dad and Sr. Rebecca.  Hope has been a game changer
In this process, the analogy has come to mind that having a loved one die is like saying “See you later” rather than “Goodbye” – we have this hope.
 
Meanwhile, along our journey, as Catholics, we want to steer clear of the sins against hope, namely, despair and presumption.
Despair:

• a person stops hoping for salvation, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is faithful to his promises - & to his mercy. 

Presumption:

• Two kinds:

Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help)

• or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).

 
Sometimes, I’ve heard people joking flippantly about confession, saying something like, “Let’s go steal some apples off that tree…it’ll be okay because I’m going to confession this afternoon.”  Even though they are kidding, I cringe interiorly because this is not the response of gratitude and love we should give to God for his goodness.  We should not be presumptuous. 
 
As I wrap up this segment on hope as a theological virtue, I’d like to share a story from my childhood. 
 
It was Christmas Eve, and “Santa” (possibly one of my uncles) was visiting.  He had been digging in his sack, pulling out gifts for all the cousins.  Santa felt his sack and it seemed empty, but my brother Dave hadn’t got a gift yet.  With his big brown eyes, he looked earnestly at the man in a red suit and called out, “Me good, Santa; me good!” 
 
What an illustration of our topic of hope! We know God has good things in store for us!

As we prepare to embark on the jubilee year in a little over a month, I wanted to share with you reflections that I presented this past fall to women at a day of reflection at St. Anne's in Grand Forks.  Together with Sr. Mary Ruth, much of this material was also presented for a weekend retreat here in Hankinson.

Rather than share it all at once, I will be dividing the reflections over several weeks' time.  
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Session I: Introduction
Song for reflection:  Cornerstone

In today’s world, we don’t hear a lot about hope, but it’s an extremely important virtue.  We will say, “I hope you have a safe trip.” Or “I hope we don’t get caught in the rain.”  But, do we say in earnestness, “I hope to see you in heaven.”? 
 
When the idea for this day of reflection, centering on hope, came to me this past July, I didn’t realize that the Pope’s theme for the upcoming Jubilee is hope – how appropriate!  It will begin on Christmas Eve and go until Epiphany, 2026.
 
I invite you to pray the Jubilee prayer. 
* * *
To be more accurate, this coming year’s theme isn’t just hope – but pilgrims of hope.  We are on a journey. 

As I began the day, I let the participants know that my impaired vision would probably affect the way I presented and lessen my ability to maintain eye contact, etc.  In this context, I went on to share the story of an experience I had during my high school years.
 
The summer after my sophomore year of high school, my parents made me attend a nearly three-week program for kids with vision impairments.  From even before the camp started, I had a very negative attitude, giving it the name “Torture Camp.”  I even went so far as to ride bike aimlessly around town to avoid going, when the dreaded day arrived.  This program was intended to give us more real-world experience and skills for doing daily activities after graduating.  We took a city bus to a part-time job, for example. 
 
You might say that, during that time, I had hope -  I had a goal in mind – the end of that camp!  June 26, 1997 – when my exile would be over and I could leave that place of torment. But it really wouldn’t have been that bad – If I had had a better attitude – If I had recognized that our Lord was with me – if I would have seen it as an opportunity to learn and grow – if I had seen the humor in the troubling incidents, like getting squirt with a water gun by a “drive-by shooter” and getting knocked in the ankles by canes.  Unfortunately, though, I didn’t.  I was not exercising the virtues of my baptism terribly well.  I was not utilizing the virtue of Christian hope.
 
Even though our life on earth can be very difficult, if we approach it with the eyes of faith and hope, we can find joy in the midst of the sorrows.   We can realize that life is a pilgrimage of hope more than a torture camp.
 
In the reflection to follow, I will share what the Catechism teaches about hope as a theological virtue.  I will explain how Jesus is our hope, I will share how the sacraments are sources of hope, and also explain how Mary and the saints inspire our hope as well.  As you may notice, the Holy Spirit is very important as we speak of the virtue of hope.  His action will come up again and again as we study what the Church teaches us on this topic.  I will conclude with some thoughts on how we can share a reason for our hope with others.
 
I’d like to put theme verse, “A Reason for your Hope” from 1 Peter 3:15 in its context (14-17):
“But even if you should suffer because of righteousness, blessed are you. Do not be afraid or terrified with fear of them, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,  but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.
 
I shared a beautiful story a certain mother shared with me last summer:
 
Her youngest was born 10 weeks early, and needed to be on a feeding tube for a year and a half.
They did feeding therapy with her every day with the hope that one day she would eat on her own.  They let her play with food, taste different foods and take small bites.  This mother found herself often fearing that she would never eat; she struggled with her own interior battle to accept her lovingly as she was, her beautiful baby girl with hope that she would one day enjoy eating.  Thankfully, her daughter eats everything now.  This beautiful woman closed by reflecting, “Maybe that’s how our Father in heaven looks at us, lovingly accepting us with the knowledge of the heavenly banquet that awaits us.”
 
I hope that these reflections will help you to be more aware of what we mean when we talk about hope and help you to cultivate this virtue in your own life. 
 
As I close this session, I’d like to share with you one of my favorite scripture passages that speaks to hope, from Romans 8:
What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: “For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
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Stay tuned in the next week or so for the second segment of this series!