A 5th Sunday after Pentecost Thought About Our Blessed Mother

We continue with our Sunday thoughts about Our Blessed Mother. Father Leen remains our sure guide.

Here we find an important connection between Mary and Hope. Hope is one of the Three Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope, and Charity. If you think about it, the first and last - Faith and Charity - may be clearer in their meaning than Hope. What exactly is Hope?

And we're not talking about the ordinary use to which we put this word: I "hope" you're listening isn't it. I "hope" the New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup isn't either. (Not only isn't it an example of Hope as a Theological virtue, but for so many years it's been an unfulfilled and frustrating version of hope!)

Our Theological Virtue of Hope is a decidedly spiritual matter. We're into the supernatural world when we think of it, speak of it, and, ideally, practice this virtue daily. And being in the supernatural, we've lifted ourselves out of the material world - that which is temporary, that doesn't last - to the spiritual world. 

The spiritual world is not only only eternal, but it ultimately must be understood as what is fully real, or really real.

OK. I'm straying into the realm of theology here. Not my bailiwick. So instead of piling on thoughts about the supernatural and the spiritual, vs the natural and material, let's instead circle back to Father Leen. 

And we remind ourselves to slow down and read his words carefully, thoughtfully. While he doesn't over-complicate things, he also never dumbs things down. He anticipates being read by those who are serious about their spiritual life and he delivers the goods to us. And so we respond to him with our full attention. And, even better, we re-read his words one or more times to get the full benefit.

Think of it this way: If you go out and splurge on a gourmet meal, are you going to take a table spoon and shovel the food in? 

Enough! Here's Father Leen: 

    “Mary is the Mother of Hope. Why? Mary always aspired towards God, always and in all her activities. Her hope was constant, sustained without a break. Mary was aspiring after and attaining to Him in all the minute preoccupations of a woman’s domestic life. For she did all things in view of her God – Jesus. She worked, she swept, she cooked, she tidied up for God. She ‘aspired’ after Him, in and through all these trivial details and occupations of an everyday existence. Are there many of us who aspire so after God? We can answer that question by putting to ourselves another. What are the things that preoccupy us? We cannot desire anything very strongly and at the same time be preoccupied with other desires. If, at any given moment, we examine our desires we may find a multitude, which are more or less strongly pulling us in various directions. Our desires are the tendencies of our life; their multiplicity is a sign that we are not moved solely by the hope of straining towards God. Mary thought nothing of importance in her life except the entering into fresh and fuller possession of God at every moment of her existence. We, too, should have that strong hope; at least we should desire it, aim at it.    

“Why do we fail? Why are we so often disappointed? We lack hope. We think we cannot reach God. We think that, today, because prayer is difficult, God is out of our reach. Perhaps we are even content with living merely on our own plane, content to occupy ourselves with the ordinary affairs of life, not using them hopefully as a means to press towards God. There should be a constant effort to realize that God is ours; that God must be ours. God has put this virtue of Hope into us for this purpose. The motive of Hope is always God, God ready to succor us in this enterprise which is the pursuit of God. When we are acting in the virtue of Hope we have not to pray God to help us. God will, in virtue of our Hope, put Himself at our disposal; He will give us all that we require to attain Him. Therefore, if we are not persuaded that by His help, we can reach Him, have intimacy with God, possession of God, love of God, as Mary had, let us turn to Mary, Mother of Fair Love, of Fear, of Knowledge and of Holy Hope, and ask her to obtain for us the grace to live and act in the virtue of Hope, and thus tend constantly towards Him Who is its object.” (Father Edward Leen, C.S.Sp.)
 

Happy 5th Sunday after Pentecost!