Each week we let Saint Pope John Paul II share meaningful signposts to spark socio-economic resolves through justice and righteousness combined with mercy and compassion; in short, love.
24 “Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap, they have no storehouse or barn, and yet God feeds them. You are of far greater importance than birds” (Luke 12: 22-24).
The Vatican, 10 November 1994 | The fundamental attitude of hope urges the Christian not to lose sight of the eventual goal that gives meaning and significance to all his existence. Moreover, it offers him solid, well-founded reasons to work every day to transform reality in such a way that it corresponds to God’s plan. 1
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Los Angeles (Universal Amphitheater), 15 September 1987 |As you probably know, I often say that you who are young bring hope to the world. The future of the world shines in your eyes. Even now, you are helping to shape the future of society. Since I have always placed high hopes on young people, I would like to speak to you today precisely about hope.
We cannot live without hope. We have to have some purpose in life, some meaning to our existence. We have to aspire to something. Without hope, we begin to die.
Why does it sometimes happen that a seemingly healthy person, successful in the eyes of the world, takes an overdose of sleeping pills and commits suicide?
On the other hand, why do we see a seriously disabled person filled with a great zest for life?
Is it not because of hope?
The one has lost all hope; in the other, hope is alive and overflowing.
Then, hope does not stem from talents and gifts or physical health and success! It comes from something else.
More precisely, hope comes from someone else, someone beyond ourselves.
Hope comes from God, from our belief in God.
People of hope believe God created them for a purpose and that he will provide for their needs.
They believe that God loves them as a faithful Father.
Do you remember the advice that Jesus gave his disciples when they seemed to be fearful of the future? He said: “Do not be concerned for your life, what you are to eat, or for your body, what you are to wear. Life is more important than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they do not sow, reap, and have neither cellar nor barn – yet God feeds them. How much more important you are than the birds!” (Luke 12: 22-24). Yes, God knows all our needs. He is the foundation for our hope.
But what about people who do not believe in God?
This is indeed a profound problem, one of the chief problems of our time – atheism, the fact that many of our contemporaries have no faith in God. When I visited Australia last year, I told a group of children:
“The hardest thing about being Pope is to see that many people do not accept the love of Jesus, do not know who he really is and how much he loves them … (Jesus) does not force people to accept his love.”
He offers it to them and leaves them free to say yes or no. It fills me with joy to see how many people know and love our Lord, how many say yes to him. But it saddens me to see that some people say no” (Ioannis Pauli II, Ad alumnos “Katherine School of the Air” Urbis vulgo nuncupatae “Darwin,“ die 29 November 1986: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, IX/2 [1986] 1746 e 1747).
Without faith in God, there can be no hope, no lasting, authentic hope. To stop believing in God is to start down a path that can lead only to emptiness and despair.
But those who have the gift of faith live with confidence about things to come. They look to the future with anticipation and joy, even in the face of suffering and pain, and the future that they are ultimately looking towards is everlasting life with the Lord. This kind of hope was very prominent in the life of Saint Paul, who once wrote: “We are afflicted in every way possible, but we are not crushed; full of doubts, we never despair. We are persecuted but never abandoned; we are struck down but never destroyed.
We do not lose heart because our inner being is renewed each day” (2 Corinthians 4: 8-9; 16). Only God can restore our inner self each day. Only God can give meaning to life, God who has drawn near to each of us in “Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Timothy 1: 1).
I would like to invite each of you to listen carefully to God’s voice. Every human person is called to communion with God. That is why the Lord made us, to know him and love him and serve him, and – in doing this – to find the secret to lasting joy.
Dear young people of America, listen to his voice. 2
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