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A pious and pleasing legend runs as follows: When our first parents were driven out of paradise, they wandered about full of sadness, and weeping. Before them stretched the earth which was to be the scene of their toil, overgrown with thorns and thistles; in their ears the terrible sentence their Judge sounded constantly: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” Then they sighed, exclaiming with tears: “Alas! why did not the angel with the flaming sword put an end to our existence!” Suddenly there breathed forth from paradise a gentle breeze; the shrubs bent their heads, and a tiny cloud, colored with the hues of dawn, floated down from the hills. From this cloud a voice was heard to speak in accents of encouragement: “Though your eyes will not be able to behold me, yet unseen by you I will be your guide through life. I will dwell in your hearts and cheer your path. When thou, O Man, dost till the ground in the sweat of thy face, I will show thee in the hazy distance waving fields of golden grain and blooming gardens, and thou shalt fancy thyself in paradise. And when thou, O Woman, shalt be in pain on account of bearing children, thou shalt behold an angel from heaven in the person of thy child, and shalt weep tears of joy.”
“Alas!” groaned the unhappy ones, “wilt thou forsake us when we come to die, O hidden messenger of consolation?” “No,” sounded the voice from the cloud, “most certainly not, but after the darkness of night has passed away, a glorious morning shall dawn upon you. When the hour of your death is drawing near, my cheering light will illumine your soul, causing you to see the celestial portals open to admit you.” “But who then art thou, celestial messenger of consolation?” queried they. “I am Hope,” was the reply, “the daughter of Faith and Love.” Then the cloud descended and encircled our first parents, so that they could not see their angelic visitant. But they were comforted and cheered.
My daughter, this heavenly being, this virtue must in like manner accompany you through life. Hope must encircle and cling to your heart like the climbing ivy. You must keep a firm hold on Christian hope, you must cling closely to it, and never let it go, for such is the will of God. God commands us to hope in Him, and indeed this injunction is embraced in the general precept: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” Hope therefore in the Lord! But wherefore ought we to do this? What is the basis of our hope?
Hope in the Lord: in the first place, because He is faithful and true, almighty and infinitely good; hence He is assuredly both able and willing to give us all that He has provided. Is it certain that He is able to do this? Yes, indeed! for how could He be almighty if He were not able to do everything, to pardon our sins, to give us His grace, and at length to receive us into heaven. He has only to will it, and His grace streams into our heart, causing it to burn with the fire of repentance and our sins are blotted out, our debt is remitted. And He does will this, because He is infinitely good and merciful. He loves all men, and desires that all should dwell with Him in heaven. That this is true He has clearly proved by giving His only begotten Son to suffer a cruel death upon the cross. And the words of St. John will remain forever true: “God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish.” Could God have given a more convincing proof that He loves us, that He desires our eternal happiness? Ought we not, must we not, on this account place our whole confidence in Him?
But to go still further. Hope in God, my daughter, because He has sealed His promises with the blood of His own Son. True it is that we could not of ourselves merit eternal happiness, or the grace which is necessary in order to obtain it, were we to strive through countless ages to do so; but what we could not merit, Jesus Christ has merited for us, through His bitter Passion and cruel death. Therefore we have, as the Apostle says: “Such confidence, through Christ, toward God.” And for the same reason St. Ambrose, in order to encourage us, writes as follows: “Behold what a judge thou hast! The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son. How then can He condemn thee, who redeemed thee with His blood, who gave Himself for thee?” This thought ought to fill us with bright hope and blessed confidence. When St. Augustine thought upon the sins of his youth, his heart grew heavy and full of fear, so that he would have been overwhelmed with sadness had he not rested his hopes upon the merits of Jesus Christ. “O Lord,” he would exclaim at such times, Thou art the Life through which I live, the Hope to which I cling, the Glory which I ardently desire to possess forever.”
Therefore, my daughter, I once more repeat: hope in the Lord! Contemplate the merits of Jesus Christ, and whilst so doing never lose confidence in Him. Even if you have already fallen into grievous sin, or if at a subsequent period you should be so unhappy as to fall into mortal sin, do not despair, but continue to hope in the mercy and pardoning love of your Saviour! Even if the priest and Levite—that is, your fellow creatures—should pass you by, and give you up for lost, your Redeemer will never act thus; He will never abandon you as lost. No, your weakness and the wounds of your soul will cause Him to draw near to you, they will move His Sacred Heart to have compassion on you. He will show Himself to be a merciful Samaritan, for He has for you only oil and wine, mercy and charity—and furthermore a piece of precious gold, giving Himself to you in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, in order to pay all your debts, those which you have incurred by your sins. Hope in Him!
Hope in Him when all else seems hopeless; have in Him such firm and implicit confidence as Susanna had in her dreadful distress. Everything seemed to have conspired to compass her ruin; she could, humanly speaking, hope for no deliverance, yet her confidence in God remained unshaken, firm as a rock. As Holy Scripture tells us: “She, weeping, looked up to heaven, for her heart had confidence in God.”
God, who to us Thyself doth give,
On Thee our hopes must all rely;
In this hope will the Christian live,
And also in this hope will die.