FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE
We
were created to love. Whether we are or aren’t aware
of it, one of our deepest aspirations is to give ourselves
to another. A Gospel parable represents love as growing
in our hearts like wheat that, having been sown, sprouts
and grows by itself, whether the farmer watches or
sleeps. Yet love often fails to grow. Its development is
blocked by selfishness, pride, “the cares of the world and the delight in riches,” as
Jesus says, or other barriers.
Most often, the root of the problem is a lack of hope.
Lacking
hope, we don’t really believe God can make us happy,
and so we construct our happiness out of covetousness and
lust. We don’t wait to find the fullness of our existence
in God, and so we shape an artificial identity grounded
in pride. Or else—the most common condition among
people of good will—we would like to love and be generous
in loving and giving ourselves, but we are held back
by fears, hesitations, and worries. Lack of trust in what
God’s grace can do in our lives, and what we can do with
his help, leads to a shrinkage of the heart, a lessening of
charity. But, as St. Thérèse of Lisieux said, trust leads to
love.
When
we lose fervor, zest, generosity in loving God and
neighbor, it is very often because of discouragement or
even a sort of secret despair. The remedy is to rekindle
— Interior Freedom, p. 104
Hope
is a choice that often demands an
effort. It is easier to worry, get discouraged, be afraid. Hoping
means trusting. When we hope we are not passive: we
are acting.
Love
is also a decision. Sometimes it comes spontaneously, but
very often loving people will mean choosing to love them. Otherwise love would
be no more than emotion, even selfishness, and not something that engages our freedom.
— Interior Freedom, p.96
There
can be no charity without hope. Love needs space to
grow and flourish; it is a marvelous thing, but in a sense, fragile.
The special “environment” it needs is made up of hope.
If love does not grow or turns cold, very often that’s because
it is stifled by cares, fears, worries, or discouragements. Jesus
told St. Faustina: “The greatest obstacles to holiness
are discouragement and worry.”
Faith is the root of our cure
and our liberation, the start of a life-giving process that
heals the death engendered by sin. This is why Jesus lays
such stress on faith. “If you have faith as a grain of mustard
seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move hence to yonder place,’
and it will move.”
— Interior Freedom, p.108
We have been placed on earth to
learn to love in the school of Jesus. Learning to
love is extremely simple: it means learning to give freely
and receive freely. But this simple lesson also is very hard for us
learn, because of sin.
— Interior
Freedom, p.117
The greatest act of charity one
can do for others is to encourage them to live in
faith and hope. To praise God is a veritable food for the
soul.
— Called to Life, p.8
