Mass at Santa Marta- The thread of hope

Spes contra spem, “believe against all hope”. This is the Christian identity card
posed by St Paul who, following in the footsteps of Abraham, was certain that
“the thread of hope”, even in the most difficult of times, “runs the course of
salvation history and, moreover, is a source of joy”. On Thursday morning, 17 March, during Mass at
Santa Marta, Pope Francis put forth this call to never lose hope, to be certain
that hope never disappoints.

“Today’s
liturgy”, he began, “prepares us for the Easter celebrations with a reflection
on the virtue of hope”, the humble virtue so often cast aside. In the passage
from the Gospel of John (8:51-59), “Jesus speaks about Abraham and says to the
doctors of the law: ‘Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day’;
he saw it and was glad’”. Abraham, the Pope recalled, was “the man who left his
land without knowing where he was going. He left in obedience, in
faithfulness”. Abraham was also “the man who believed in the Word of God and
was justified in that faith”; but he was also “the man who was tempted along
this path of hope when, both he and his wife, smiled as God told them they
would have a son. But he believed”.

Referring
to the First Reading, taken from the Book of Genesis (17:3-9), the Pontiff
highlighted “this covenant: I will give you land, you will be the father of
generations”. Thus, “Abraham believed and this thread of hope runs the course
of salvation history. Moreover, it is a source of joy”.

Today,
the Pope continued, “the Church speaks to us about the joy of hope”. Indeed,
“in the first prayer of the Mass”, he recalled, “we asked God for the grace to
preserve the hope of the Church, that it never fail”. St Paul too, “speaking of
our father Abraham, tells us to ‘believe against all hope’”. Thus, Francis
stated, “when there is no human hope, there is the virtue which leads you
forward”. It is “humble and simple, but it gives you joy, sometimes great joy,
sometimes simply peace”. However, we can always be certain that this “hope does
not disappoint”.

“Abraham’s
joy grows in history”, said the Pontiff, who repeated the words of the Lord
from the day’s Gospel Reading: “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see
my day”. It’s true, the Pope acknowledged, that hope “is sometimes hidden, it
is unseen”, while “sometimes it is openly manifest”. Thus, upon Mary’s arrival
at her cousin’s house, Elizabeth says to her: “as soon as I heard your voice,
the babe in my womb leaped for joy!”. In this meeting there is “the joy of the
presence of God who walks with his people”, and “when there is joy, there is
peace. This is the virtue of hope: from joy to peace, which never disappoints”.

This
is the reason that the People of God, even “in times of slavery, at times in
which they were sojourners, in a foreign land”, they always had “that sense of
certainty that the Prophets cultivated: ‘The Lord will save you’”. That “thread
of hope”, the Pope explained, “begins here with Abraham, God speaks with
Abraham, and it ‘ends’ in this Gospel passage where the same God who spoke with
Abraham says: ‘I am he who spoke; before Abraham was, I am; I am he who called
Abraham; I am he who began this journey of salvation’”.

He
is the God, Francis added, “who accompanies us, he is also the God who suffers,
who suffers as his people have suffered, he suffers on the Cross, but he is
true to his word”.

Precisely
in this regard the Pope recommended an essential examination of conscience
regarding faith, love and hope, asking several direct questions: “Do you have
faith? Yes father, I have faith: I believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
and in the sacraments. Very well, do you have love? Yes, but not very much, I
try not to quarrel, to help the needy, to do something good in life”. These are
the easy answers that we often give, Francis noted. But, he added, “when you
ask yourself if you have hope, if you have the joy of hope”, the answer is:
“Father, I don’t understand, explain”.

Hope,
the Pontiff remarked, is “the humble virtue, the virtue that courses beneath
the water of life, but which supports us so as not to drown in the many
difficulties, so as not to lose the desire to find God, to find that marvellous
face that we will all see one day”. Today, Pope Francis said, “is a fine day to
reflect on this: the same God who called Abraham and made him come down from
his land without knowing where he should go, is the same God who goes to the
Cross in order to fulfil the promise that he made. He is”, the Pope continued,
“the same God who in the fullness of time will make that promise a reality for
all of us”. What “joins that first instance to this last moment is the thread
of hope”. Therefore, what “joins my Christian life to our Christian life, from
one moment to another, in order to always go forward — sinners, but forward —
is hope”. Yet, “what gives us peace in the dark moments, in life’s darkest
moments”, is always “hope”.

Hope
“does not disappoint: it is always there, silent, humble, but strong”, Francis
concluded. The he repeated once again “today’s prayer, at the beginning of
Mass: ‘Our hope is in your hands, O Lord, preserve our hope”.