June 22, 2014 - Sunday

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance. (Romans 8:25 NABRE)


How many times have you given up hope that something you were waiting for would ever actually come to be?  I remember as a child what it felt like at that moment when I actually recognized something wasn't going to happen as I had imagined, or a gift I desperately wanted wasn't going to be mine.  I can still feel that hollow, sinking, breathless moment of complete disappointment when nothing else mattered and everything else faded into the huge shadow of sorrow that overwhelmed me.

What a stark contrast between that feeling and the hope described in today's verse!

Saint Paul includes these words in a beautiful passage about destiny.  In it, he describes the glory for which this whole creation waits as the "glorious freedom" for which the children of God are destined.  And he tells us how we can overcome the sufferings of this life, to find the enduring hope we need, by the aid of the Holy Spirit who shows us how to pray.

Think about today.  Think about that relationship you can't mend.  Think about that haunting negative emotion you can't shake.  Think about that fear you can't get away from or that problem you can't solve.  These things cannot overtake the child of God who puts his hope in the promise of Christ and asks for the assistance of the Holy Spirit.  They just can't.

Remember that you are God's child.  Think about that!  You have parents.  You have children.  The love you feel for them is a mere echo of the love God our father has for us!  Our love for each other is the gray of early dawn compared with God's love for us which is all the bright colors of midday.  So, in the midst of this life's pains, he gives us his Spirit to sustain our hope for what is to come.


Today, I will endure my trials with hope, accepting the Spirit's assistance in prayer.


Saint Thomas More, patron of attorneys, civil servants, court clerks, lawyers, politicians, and public servants-- a man who knew that no human authority was higher than God's, pray for us.