Christian Life: Founded on Hope
I trust in you, O Lord! My hopes will not be in vain. (OOCC, X, p. 54; STA, 232)
The life St. Vincent Pallotti lived as a Christian and as a priest was totally steeped in hope, assisted by faith and charity. He was a man of hope and his life was founded on hope. In everything, he always conducted himself in such a way that nothing distracted him from God. Whether it was distress, misery or tribulation, he did not lose hope but rather stood firm on the foundation that is God, the rock of his life. If something went wrong in his spiritual endeavors, he corrected the state of affairs counting on God’s power to make things different for him. If any of his apostolic endeavors did not go the way it should have gone, he placed it in the hands of God with the hope that God would provide, while meticulous in making the needed changes or modifications to his plans in order to make the task successful. When he found himself in his brokenness having lived a life of infidelity to God, without losing hope he would attempt to overcome his self-limitation with the mercy and compassion of God which was always available to him. In all situations, he would cry out to God saying that he hoped in him and prayed that his hopes would not be without meaning. Thus, the totality of St. Vincent’s life was founded on hope in God.
Is my life as a Christian and as a religious founded on hope? Am I a person of hope? In any situations of my life, if events get out of hand do I lose hope in God?
Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. (I Pet. 1:21)