{"id":35386,"date":"2019-01-22T14:46:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T20:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=35386"},"modified":"2019-01-22T15:06:31","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T21:06:31","slug":"on-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/on-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"On Hope","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

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Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea,
\nbut the encounter with an event, a person,
\nwhich gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.\u00a0
\n<\/strong>\u2014POPE BENEDICT XVI;\u00a0Encyclical Letter: Deus Caritas Est, \u201cGod is Love\u201d<\/em>; 1<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I AM\u00a0<\/b>a cradle Catholic. There have been many key moments that have deepened my faith over the past five decades. But the ones that produced\u00a0hope\u00a0<\/em>were when I personally encountered the presence and power of Jesus. This, in turn, led me to love Him and others more. Most often, those encounters happened when I approached the Lord as a broken soul, for as the Psalmist says:<\/p>\n

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The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;\u00a0a broken and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalms 51:17)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

God hears the cry of the poor, yes\u2026 but He reveals Himself to them when their cry is borne out of humility, that is, genuine faith.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

He is found by those who do not test him,\u00a0and manifests himself to those who do not disbelieve him. (Wisdom of Solomon 1:2)<\/span><\/p>\n

Faith by its specific nature is an encounter with the living God.\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014POPE BENEDICT XVI;\u00a0Encyclical Letter: Deus Caritas Est, \u201cGod is Love\u201d<\/em>; 28<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is this manifestation of Jesus\u2019 love and power that \u201cgives life a new horizon\u201d, a horizon of hope<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

IT’S PERSONAL<\/p>\n

Far too many Catholics have grown up going to Sunday Mass without hearing that they need to personally open their hearts to Jesus<\/em>\u2026 and so, they eventually grew up without the Mass altogether.\u00a0That\u2019s probably because their priests were never taught this fundamental truth in the seminary either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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As you well know it is not a matter of merely passing on a doctrine, but rather of a personal and profound meeting with the Saviour.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0 \u2014POPE JOHN PAUL II, Commissioning Families, Neo-Catechumenal Way. 1991<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I say \u201cfundamental\u201d because it\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>a teaching of the Catholic Church:<\/p>\n

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\u201cGreat is the mystery of the faith!\u201d The Church professes this mystery in the Apostles\u2019 Creed and celebrates it in the sacramental liturgy, so that the life of the faithful may be conformed to Christ in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father. This mystery, then, requires that the faithful believe in it, that they celebrate it, and that they live from it in a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God.<\/strong><\/span> \u2013Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/em> (CCC), 2558<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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HOPE\u2019S DAWN<\/p>\n

In the opening chapter of Luke, the first rays of dawn broke the bleak horizon of humanity when the Angel Gabriel said:<\/p>\n

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\u2026you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins\u2026\u00a0they shall name him Emmanuel,<\/span>\u00a0which means \u201cGod is with us.\u201d (Matt 1:21-23)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

God is not far away. He is\u00a0with us.\u00a0<\/em>And the reason for His coming is not to punish but deliver us from our sin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2018The Lord is near\u2019. This is the reason for our joy.<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014POPE BENEDICT XVI, December 14th, 2008, Vatican City<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But you won\u2019t experience this joy, this hope for freedom from the slavery of sin, unless you unlock it with the key of faith. So here is another fundamental truth that must form the very foundation of your faith; it is the rock on which your entire spiritual life must be built: God is love.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I did not say \u201cGod is loving.\u201d No, He IS love. His very essence is\u00a0love. As such\u2014now understand this, dear reader\u2014your behaviour does not affect His love for you. In fact, there is no sin in the world, no matter how great, that can separate you from the love of God. This is what St. Paul proclaimed!<\/p>\n

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What will separate us from the love of Christ\u2026\u00a0I 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. (cf. Rom 8:35-39)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So can you go on sinning? Of course not, because grave sin\u00a0can\u00a0<\/em>separate you from His presence<\/em>, and eternally at that. But not His love. I believe it was St. Catherine of Siena who once said that the love of God reaches even to the gates of Hell, but there, it is refused. What I\u2019m saying is that the whisper in your ear telling you that you are not loved by God is a flat out lie. In fact, it was precisely when the world was filled with lust, murder, hatred, greed, and every seed of destruction that Jesus came to us.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is hope\u2019s dawn in the heart of the one who can accept it. And today, in this \u201ctime of mercy\u201d that is running out on our world, He is pleading for us to believe it:<\/p>\n

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Write this for the benefit of distressed souls: when a soul sees and realizes the gravity of its sins, when the whole abyss of the misery into which it immersed itself is displayed before its eyes, let it not despair, but with trust let it throw itself into the arms of My mercy, as a child into the arms of its beloved mother. These souls have a right of priority to My compassionate Heart, they have first access to My mercy. Tell them that no soul that has called upon My mercy has been disappointed or brought to shame. I delight particularly in a soul which has placed its trust in My goodness\u2026 Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet\u2026<\/strong> \u2014<\/i>Jesus to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary,<\/i> n. 541, 699<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There are other things I could have written about hope today, but if you don\u2019t really<\/em> believe this fundamental truth\u2014that God the Father loves you right now, in the broken state you may be and that He \"\"desires your happiness\u2014then you will be like a boat tossed about by the wind of every temptation and trial. For this hope in God\u2019s love is our anchor.\u00a0<\/em>A humble and true faith says, \u201cJesus I surrender to you. You take care of everything!\u201d And when we pray this from the heart, from our guts, so to speak, then Jesus will enter our lives and truly work miracles of mercy. Those miracles, in turn, will plant the seed of hope where once sadness grew.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHope,\u201d says the Catechism, “is the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul\u2026 that enters\u2026 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.\u201d [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf.\u00a0Catechism of the\u00a0Catholic Church,\u00a0<\/i>n. 1820; cf. Hey 6:19-20<\/span><\/span>