In today’s 1st reading Paul tells us: “The sufferings present are nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.” In other words, we live in a world straining towards the finishing line, and each one of us is straining in the same way toward the fulness of our being. Everything is rigorous activity and progress toward the end.
Looking back, we see how quickly we have progressed in the electronic revolution, in advancement of scientific discovery. At the same time, we know that we are not free “from slavery to corruption,” that we do not “share in the glorious freedom of the children of God;” and that “all creation is groaning in labor pains.”
Yet we are called to be men and women of hope, the only virtue that looks to the past and to the future to give us a perspective of the present. Christ suffered, died and rose for us; he has promised us a share in the resurrected life, and so we are able to see and judge the pain in our present lives with a faith-filled, realistic lens.
Today I shall pray to Our Lady of Hope to obtain for me the grace to evaluate these times in which we live and to put them into her perspective.