Christian hope is not based on personal merit, nor
upon good works, nor good intentions, for all these are too transitory, and too
utterly disproportionate to the attainment of God; rather, our hope is based
upon God himself, upon Christ the one Mediator and Savior.
For hope not to
become rashness, it must obviously be accompanied by personal effort and
diligence; still we must be convinced that all our good will and good works are
always insufficient; only God can sanctify us, only God can raise us up to himself
and give us himself as our possession. Only God, the object of our hope, is
also the support of hope, its buttress, its fulcrum.
With this in mind St.
Therese of the Child Jesus wrote: Sanctity does not consist in this or that
practice; it consists in a disposition of the heart which make us humble and
little in the arms of God, conscious of our weakness, and confident to the
point of audacity in the goodness of our Father (Novissima Verba, pg. 29).
Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD
Divine
Intimacy
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