Monday, June 8, 2009

Pure Hope

We are saved by hope for that which we do not see and we wait for it with patience. The Holy Spirit is the One Who fills our heart with this hope and this patience. If we did not have Him speaking constantly to the depths of our conscience, we could not go on believing. . .The trials that seem to defy our hope and ruin the very foundations of all patience are meant, by the Spirit of God, to make our hope more and more perfect, basing it entirely in God, removing every visible support that can be found in this world. For a hope that rests on temporal power or temporal happiness is not theological. It is merely human, and has no supernatural strength to give us.-----Father Thomas Merton
 
This is a subtle but incredibly important message to us. What is our hope truly in? Is it in our own strength and cunning? Is it in an idea, a guru, a teacher, or a guide? The hope God wants us to have is a, "pure hope" as St. Paul says. Pure in what way? Pure in the fact that it is complete in God alone, and in what He has done, is doing, and will do. The Holy Spirit is our only true Guide and Teacher, the only One we can truly trust. He is our Helper. We can't and won't find lasting help anywhere else. This all sounds so easy to grasp and to accept, but, it is not. We grasp at what we can see or feel and place these things before our hope in God all the time. Our trials and struggles are the ways the Holy Spirit wakes us up and shows us where our true hopes lie. If we see and respond with longing for God alone, we will move closer to pure hope, a hope that never dissapoints. God, have mercy on us.
 
wkm

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