> [[337-education-and-culture-at-the-service-of-the-apostolate|← 337. Education and Culture at the Service of the Apostolate]] | [[-divine-intimacy-toc|TOC]] | [[339-progress-in-the-apostolate|339. Progress in the Apostolate →]] # 338. Apostolic Hope PRESENCE OF GOD - O Jesus, I place all my hope for the souls that You have entrusted to me, in Your power, in Your infinite love, and in Your Passion. ## Meditation 1 N His work the apostle needs to be sustained by A strong hope. The moments of enthusiasm are brief, success is quickly followed by failure, difficulties are numerous, the struggle waged by enemy forces is sharp and incessant, and if the apostle is not firmly anchored in God by solid theological hope, He will end, sooner or later, by giving up the enterprise in discouragement. “I have overcome the world” (jn 16,33), Jesus declared, and sending the apostles to continue His victorious mission, He assured them, “I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Mt 28,20). The foundation of apostolic hope is the victory of Christ and His continual help. Yes, He is with us all days, even on the dark days, when the horizon is black without A ray of light, when the enemy triumphs, when our friends forsake us, and when, humanly speaking, one does not see any possibility of success. If we had to rely upon our own resources, our ability, our works, we should have every reason to give up in despair; this, however, is not the case. We hope and we are certain in our hope, because God is omnipotent, because He wills all men to be saved, because Christ has redeemed us with His precious blood, and because He has died for us and for us has risen again; and finally, because His promises—the promises of A god—are infallible: “heaven and earth shall pass, but my words shall not pass” (ibid. 24,35) Relying on the salvific will of God, on His infinite power, and on the redemption of Christ, the apostle should nourish the certain hope that grace will triumph in the end. But at the same time, he should have no delusions; he should realize that he will not attain victory except by passing through Calvary. “Neither is the apostle greater than He that sent him” (Jn 13,16). If Jesus reached the triumph of the Resurrection only after His Passion and most painful death, the apostle cannot seek another way. For him also, there will necessarily come hours of darkness, but rather than being a sign of defeat, they will be the prelude to victory; rather than being a sign of abandonment on the part of God, they will be a proof that God is with him, precisely because He is leading him by the very same way along which He led His divine Son. ## Meditation 2 Jesus also has known failure: after His discourse in the synagogue of Nazareth, His fellow citizens were indignant. “They brought Him to the brow of the hill... that they might cast Him down headlong” ([[luke-04|Lk 4]]:,29). On two other occasions when the Jews were scandalized by His words, they “took up stones to stone Him” (Jn 10,31). The Pharisees conspired against Him and treacherously plotted His death; Judas betrayed Him; His own abandoned Him. He was made the laughingstock of the soldiers; He was scourged, crowned with thorns, clothed as a mock king, blindfolded, spat upon; Barabbas was preferred to Him. He was led to Calvary and crucified between two thieves. Humanly speaking, one could well say that the apostolate of Jesus terminated in absolute failure, with His death as a malefactor. All this should be deeply impressed on the mind of the apostle, so that he may not be scandalized if something similar should happen in his own life: “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (ibid. 15,20). By means of persecutions, humiliations and failures, the apostle will learn not to trust in his own strength; he will consider himself a useless servant even after he has labored much; he will be convinced of his own insufficiency and of the insufficiency of all human means; hence, he will place all his hope in God. He will learn to work solely for the love of God, without seeking the consolation of success, renouncing even the legitimate satisfaction of seeing the results of his labors. He will learn to be detached from the opinions and judgments of men, to act independently of their approval or disapproval, and to look only to the judgment and approval of God. The contradictions and troubles that the apostle encounters in his work constitute his dark night, comparable to that of contemplatives, a night that is painful but very precious, because its purpose is to purify the soul of every remnant of self-love, of egoism, of vanity, of attachment to creatures and to their esteem. This night, if generously accepted, will gradually lead to an ever greater interior purity, and therefore, to an ever closer union with God. The apostle should remain steadfast in hope, notwithstanding struggles, difficulties, and failures. He should be assured of success, not only where the salvation of the souls entrusted to him is concerned, but also in relation to his own personal sanctification. Even if God should permit his success to remain hidden and all his work to end, as did that of Jesus, in apparent failure, the apostle will find strength in the wounds and Blood of the divine Crucified to persevere in hope, and to hope against all hope. ## Colloquy “O Lord, I wish to draw down Your mercy on this poor world, not only by the generosity of my sacrifice and my detachment, but also by the generosity of my confidence. I want to believe against all evidence, hope against all hope; I want to believe with unshakable confidence, even when things seem to become ever more painful and difficult to resolve. I want to touch Your heart, O Lord, by the firmness and generosity of my confidence! “I know and firmly believe that You love me, that You permit all for Your greater glory and for my greater good; I know that I can cooperate in the salvation of souls, and that the sufferings of time have no proportion with future glory; I know that to become a saint it is necessary to suffer much, and that one reaches pure love through pure suffering; I know that all is possible to me in You, who are my support. Even if I were fatigued, oppressed by darkness, anguish, and agony, by looking at You, O Jesus Crucified, I should always taste an intimate supernatural joy, since You admit me to share Your sufferings in order to conform me to Your Passion and to permit me one day to participate in Your glory. “I can always rejoice in the face of any suffering, humiliation, trial, interior or exterior pain, by reflecting that You, O Jesus, do me the honor of inviting me to participate in Your Passion, in Your redemptive work for souls. Therefore, far from considering these sorrows as evils, teach me to embrace them and to welcome them as favors and precious means for my sanctification, vivifying them through love and a peaceful, total adherence to Your will. O Lord, it is in this spirit that I intend to offer You my prayer, my mortification, my daily renunciation, my continual acceptance of the sufferings You send me, to draw down graces on the whole Church and to save souls” ([[carmela-of-the-holy-spirit-sister|Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.]]). # References --- ![[bibliography#^biblio-di]] > [[337-education-and-culture-at-the-service-of-the-apostolate|← 337. Education and Culture at the Service of the Apostolate]] | [[-divine-intimacy-toc|TOC]] | [[339-progress-in-the-apostolate|339. Progress in the Apostolate →]]