“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul -“ (Elizabeth Barrett Browning).
There is a little poem, written by the Romantic Poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and it begins like this…
“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all -…”
There is so much comfort in hope. It is said that hope is the fruit of suffering and in fact it is hope that is our gift from God.
And what a difficult thing to accept. It is like accepting that in order to get to the sweet delicious chocolate inside, we must first peel back the wrapper. And when we do peel back that wrapper we are assuming that the chocolate inside it will be delicious. We are assuming that the chocolate will be worth the effort of pulling back the wrapper. We are assuming that the effort is worth the reward.
And I have been thinking about that. What is hope worth to a person? What is the difference of hope to the human soul? How much of a benefit or blessing is hope?
Well, one has only to consider the case of a person who is tormented by depression. What a difference a little hope can have… The difference between despair and hope is just the Grace of being able to see that this world is just a moment. Even the most permanent thing of this world – even a life-threatening illness or injury – is actually just a temporary issue and would be easily reduced to nothing in the perspective of eternal life.
And this is significant. You see, if I die and all my loved ones also die tomorrow (God forbid), it will still not be the worst thing. It will still not be the most terrible fate that we will all endure. You see, death of the body is a problem in the temporary. Instead, we are concerned for the permanent. And the permanent relates to eternal life.
And the only real problem is if I spend eternity dead in Hell. And THAT is what it looks like to have no hope. It looks like Hell itself. For Hell itself is the existence of no joy and no hope. And that is a terrible thing.
It is for that reason that the little Shepherd children of Fatima changed their entire way of life after witnessing Hell itself. Saint Jacinta of Fatima said that if only people could see Hell, nobody would ever sin again…
And the reason for that is that in Hell there is no hope at all. There is just an eternal suffering and torment without any HOPE… And it is the lack of hope for anything better that the suffering becomes torment, and it is torment that is what is unbearable to any soul…
So, today I pray for hope because hope makes everything better…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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