Hoping against all hope with Mary at the foot of the Cross

One of the texts of Vatican Council II mentions Mary’s hope at the foot of the Cross as a determining factor of her maternal calling. It says that being united with Him as He died on the Cross, “In this singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Savior.”

Let us turn to the Church, that is, to ourselves. … The Church, like Mary, lives the Resurrection “in hope.” For it, too, the Cross is an object of experience, whereas the Resurrection is an object of hope.

Just as Mary was close to her crucified son, so the Church is called to be close to the crucified of today: the poor, the suffering, the humiliated, those who are insulted. How can the Church stay close to these people? In hope, like Mary. It is not enough to pity their sufferings or even to try to alleviate them. This would be too little. Anyone can do that, even those who know nothing about the Resurrection. The Church must transmit hope, proclaiming that suffering is not absurd, that it is meaningful, because there will be the Resurrection after death. She must give the reason for the hope that she has (see 1 Peter 3:15).

People need hope to live just as they need oxygen to breathe. The Church too needs hope to advance in history and not be crushed by all the internal and external trials. In the general audience of March 11th—the last public audience before the suspension for the Corona virus—Pope Francis urged us to live this time of trial "with strength, responsibility and hope.” I should like to take up especially his appeal for hope.

Hope has been, and still is, the poor relation among the theological virtues. Charles Péguy (1) has a beautiful image in this regard. He said that the three theological virtues—faith, hope and charity—are like three sisters: two grown-ups and one still a child. They walk together on the street holding hands, the two big ones on the sides and the little girl in the center. The little girl is of course Hope. Everyone seeing them says: "It is certainly the two grown-ups who drag the girl in the center!" They are wrong: it is the little girl Hope who drags the two sisters, because if hope stops everything stops.

We must become “accomplices of the child Hope,” as the same French poet said… This means you allow God to delude you, deceive you on this earth as often as He wishes. More than that, it means being happy deep down in some remote corner of your heart that God didn’t listen to you because, in this way, He has allowed you to show Him another proof of your hope, to make yet another act of hope, which is increasingly more difficult for you each time. He has granted you a much greater grace than the one you asked for: the grace to hope in Him. He has all eternity to let us “forgive Him” for the delay!

Let us now turn to Mary, who stayed close to the Cross hoping against all hope.

(1) French writer, Charles Péguy (1873-1914), poet and Catholic mystic, died on September 5th, killed by a bullet in his head, on the eve of the first Battle of the Marne (France) during WWI.

Father Cantalamessa*, Third Lenten Sermon, 2020

*Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap., preacher of the Pontifical Household, was elevated to the Cardinalate by Pope Francis on November 28, 2020.