Hope (1)

Why Hope?

We grew up on believing in The Living Hope. We can obviously be reassured the Holy Spirit was never absent a single day.  His intercession is forever.

We know that we are all attracted to further The Kingdom where  Jesus is inviting us, which is the eternal happiness, the constant joy and where we can find Jesus rest  and no concerns to be worried about.

Thus, we are to assert our faith in Hope. For us, God is almighty and honest. His honesty, makes us have no doubt in what He promises us to be in.

On the other hand, we live in a painful world. Pain spreads everywhere. This world does not bear and endure its pain anymore, that's why to be justified, it chooses to renounce God, who promised us rest and happiness as though He does not exist.

In that matter, what turns to be dangerous is not the world turning to paganism since belief in paganism hides  a yearning to The True God, but it's that the world is turning  to atheism, an active atheism in which the world is organizing itself to destroy faithfulness, to stand up against God and to deny Hope.

The world builds on human efforts, willpower, and self-capacity training to reach the targeted results, even supernatural and uncanny. Thus, for this world, graces are unnecessary.

For us, things are different. Although we all experience pain living in this world, we choose to believe in God’s Hope and in His honesty. He is both almighty and merciful at the same time. Only with His peace we can endure our pains.  

That’s why Hope?

© Copyright 2010: Our Lady For Life Christo-centric Reflections: Dr. Tarek E. Chidiac. All rights reserved.

Divine Hope (2)


What Is Hope?

We are talking about Someone who is strong and firm, and wants to support us because of his unlimited love towards us. He intervenes in our lives even if we don’t ask Him. This Someone is Our Almighty God, called so many times in the holy bible as “The Rock,” (located in the New and Old Testament, especially in the Psalms).  

On  this “Rock”-(Our God)- we may rely on Him when we are worn out, under one condition: totally submit to Him, to His Will, to His Love, since we believe that He aims to guide us to salvation, and to His many houses prepared for us. He is the shepherd. Therefore, we may repeat what “Charles de Foucault”, a French saint, prayed many years ago: “Lord, I put my own self into your hands, so you may do with it what You want to do. And, whatever you do, I’ll be grateful to You.”

Total submission means total trust, so, absolute Hope. It is what He recommended to  us, and remember He is a jealous God. ("I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous," …Exodus 20:5).

In Meribah, a place in the desert, there was no water for the people guided by Moses to drink. They quarreled with him, ("Is the LORD in our midst or not?")  and it sounded like he was scared from them. So Moses cried out to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!" They all tested The God, The Just Judge. So, Moses and his brother Aaron would never enter the land given to the people of God: "because both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribath in the desert of Zin by failing to manifest my sanctity among the Israelites. You may indeed view the land at a distance, but you shall not enter that land which I am giving to the Israelites." (Deuteronomy 32:51-52).

Total Trust or Unworthy Hope.

Nevertheless, Hope never means laziness or sluggishness. We have to work, do, move, and at the same time, give our efforts to Him that He may strengthen them.

© Copyright 2010: Our Lady For Life Christo-centric Reflections: Dr. Tarek E. Chidiac. All rights reserved.

Divine Hope (3)


When Hope?

What  usually stands in the way of our Hope?

In a word, it is the human hope which is not The Divine Hope we talked about above that may  stand in the way of our Hope. The human hope is  a human expectation or anticipation. It’s based on our reckoning; it builds on our own efforts. Therefore, it’s the opposite of The Divine Hope.

In other languages, one can find two different words to use for either Divine Hope or human hope.  For example: “espérance” and “espoir” in French language, “esperanza” and “espero” in Spanish … etc …
 
Human hope doesn’t lead to God, nor conduct to Him. It’s a wrong imitation of Divine Hope. Nevertheless, there is an inverse relation between these two hopes. In fact, Divine Hope increases when human hope decreases. The Divine One grows to be absolute only when the human one perishes and passes away.  

Let's suppose that one is in deep trouble, and has a way to get out of it, he has his own hope. But, when all his ways fail, and he realizes there is no way to pass off, he begins to look up to God, and his Divine Hope grows to be absolute.

When we surrender to Him, we let Him hold us and feed us with His Power and Wisdom. According to His promises, we believe that Our Lord intervenes in order to fulfill our needs, even our simple daily needs. He may do miracles also that will make us rest and be healed physically and spiritually. We believe too that He promises to flood upon us further graces which are not reachable by our human hope, just as eternal happiness and joy, realized Kingdom, salvation, etc.

This inverse relation between Divine Hope and human hope is obvious in Jesus' education and teaching. Two events in the Gospel mentioned it: The dead girl (the daughter of Jairus) rose from the dead, and the healing of the Phoenician woman.

© Copyright 2010: Our Lady For Life Christo-centric Reflections: Dr. Tarek E. Chidiac. All rights reserved..

Divine Hope (4)