Vigils Reading – Memorial of BVM

MARY AND

THE VIRTUE OF HOPE

By Fr Romano Guardini

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Elizabeth calls the Virgin Blessed because she had faith – for everything

would happen as the Lord had told her; through the power of the Holy Spirit she

would become the Mother of the Redeemer, and in this find the fulfillment of

her life and salvation. To be assured of this was not always easy. When the

Gospel speaks of Mary and her son, one perceives a great love, but also a

remoteness.

The answer of the twelve-year-old boy in the temple; the answer Jesus

gave at the wedding feast of Cana; his words to the bystanders, when Mary, at

the door, asks for him; what he said to the woman who exalted his Mother; and

his last testament in which he committed her to the care of the disciple – in each

of these, something is revealed that removes him from her, and we always sense

the possibility that she might have become perplexed about God’s guidance. But

each time her confidence increased and she placed all into his hands. Mary lived

completely through her confidence in God’s power, a power that is capable of

consummating all, even in darkness and opposition.

Hope is confidence in God’s power to accomplish all things. He has

promised that we shall become new persons, and that his creation shall be a

“new heaven and a new earth”. This is gainsaid by the impression made on us by

worldly things; by the course our life is taking; by the opinions of people around

us; by our own daily insufficiency and sin – by everything. Hope is the

“nevertheless” of faith. In spite of all contradiction, the new life is within us, and

God will complete it if we trust in him despite all opposition. But that is difficult,

sometimes impossible. So we must ask again that the Lord “may strengthen our

hope.”