This past week I was privileged to speak at an Easter-themed retreat, Hope in Christ, that was put on by Campus Ministry at The College of St. Scholastica.
I was thinking that the topic “Hope” is perfect for the feast of Divine Mercy Sunday. Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter. It was established in 2000 by Pope St. John Paul II. Divine Mercy Sunday focuses on the gift of mercy and love given through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. In that gift of mercy and love lies our hope.
I sometimes think that the concept of hope has been hijacked. We use the word hope so casually. We say things like: “I hope that this movie is good,” “I hope we win the game,” or “I hope the baby is going to be a girl.” We act as if hope is found in crossing our fingers or squeezing our eyes tight-shut. We think that hope is the same as wanting something badly to make it come true. Or we think of hope as optimism and equate it with the power of positive thinking. And if that is all we think of hope, that we are a sorry lot.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that the virtue of hope takes our innate desires for happiness and “purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven” (CCC 1818). By the grace of God, our disappointment with this broken world becomes a longing for God that brings us hope.
Hope is the reasonable expectation we have of God and his goodness. In other words, hope erupts from the lived awareness that there is Someone who loves us with an indestructible love whatever befalls us. Our hope comes from Jesus. It flows from His Divine Mercy. Not only did Jesus come to bring us hope. He came to be our hope.
Let us ask Jesus to renew our hope in His Divine Mercy, so that we might live it more fully in our lives.
