Mediations on Hope

As I pray my rosary, I try to find different ways to enter into the mysteries. Sometimes, I put myself into the mind of Jesus, or Mary, or maybe even an Angel watching nearby. These are always illuminating and bring something beautiful out of the mystery I am meditating on. Yesterday, after a day filled with negative news, bad feelings, and a little of the post-holiday slump, I decided to try to find ways that hope speaks through each mystery. Some mysteries were a little hard to see the hope in, but as I pondered each one, I let my mind open to different ways hope can be portrayed.

Hope is defined in most dictionaries as a feeling of expectation or a feeling of trusting in a good outcome. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this of hope:

Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”  “The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.” 

The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity.

Now the Joyful Mysteries are full of obvious connections of hope. From the Annunciation of our Lord to the child Jesus preaching in the temple, we see the promise of God to send us a savior is coming to fruition. The Luminous mysteries are also full of hopeful expectations. They open with the Baptism of our Lord and conclude with the Institution of the Holy Eucharist. Two beautiful sacraments filled with God’s promises of His plan for salvation. Then we come to the Sorrowful Mysteries. They open with the Agony in the Garden and then follow Jesus to His Crucifixion and death. It was hard to meditate on hope when I started these mysteries. That was until I started thinking about the realities of the Cross and noting the Catechism says that hope means placing our trust in the promises of Christ and not our own strength. Boom. The Cross is an instrument of hope. My cross and your cross are meant to help us, not hurt us. By trusting in the will of God and His Goodness, we must trust that whatever trials we face in life are allowed for our betterment and our salvation.

If you read the stories of the lives of many saints, you quickly see they have a different opinion of the Cross than most people do. Most people equate the cross with horrific suffering, brutality, and horrendous pain….and it is all of those things, but it is so much more! After reading the saint memoirs, the closer they get to Christ, the more they begin to thank God for their crosses. The saints begin to claim to embrace and even kiss their crosses. The fact that these men and women are eager to seek out their crosses and offer all their sufferings up to God so joyfully is mind blowing to most people unless you really understand what the Cross is. The Cross is your personal path to Heaven. There is no other way. You must pick up your Cross and follow Him. We learn by following in the footsteps of Christ to Calvary, that we must die to our will and live in His Will. Happily embracing the cross that is meant to save us.

The cross is your personal key to Heaven. The only key that will open that heavenly gate for you. Each cross is different and created by the Holy Carpenter who knows His materials and His children who will carry them. Your cross is personally selected by Christ to challenge you, test you, and strengthen you on your journey to Heaven. You could almost say the cross is one of Christ’s most perfect gifts that He gives to His beloveds. Without our cross we would be lost and might wonder off the path to Heaven. But by staying on the path and dragging our cross in His footsteps, we will reach our destination with Him. You see, He never leaves you. When you stumble (and you will!) He is there to pick you up and help you carry your cross. Why?? Because there is no way to carry your cross without Jesus. With Him, Jesus says the “yoke is easy, and the burden is light”. Without Jesus….the Cross is crippling and leads to despair and hopelessness. With Jesus, the Cross, while still challenging, becomes a means of joy and hope. Joy, in that we are uniting our sufferings with Christ and hope, that we are marching along with Him to Calvary: the Gate of Heaven.

Seen in this way, the Cross and the Passion of Christ are both full of hope. A hope that this world cannot provide or comprehend. This type of hope springs eternal and leads to the arms of the Father who is waiting for us in Heaven with His arms open wide.

I pray that you begin to see your personal struggles and crosses as paths to heaven and remember to ask Christ to join you in your journey to Calvary. He is the only Truth, the only Way, and the only Light that can lead you to Heaven. So be like the saints. Do not lay down your cross. Do not curse your cross. Instead, cling to that beautiful instrument of your salvation that your Savior has personally handcrafted for you that will unite you with Him forever. Amen.