Sister Mary Keegan is presently missioned in Australia. She has also worked in the Solomon Islands and in Goroka, Papua New Guinea. In this article she invites us all to take up the challenge of the World Youth Days and to live as Missionaries of Hope.
Theologians tell us that “Hope” is the Virtue that brings Happiness into the Heart and moves us to seek God. It is Hope that leads us to love God and keep His Commandments. Hope makes us cling to God as the source of our Happiness, as the one who invites us to eternal life.
The enemy of Hope is despair. A person without Hope has nothing to live for, nothing to seek, nothing to gain; they cannot respect themselves or others. Looking around we can estimate that the great sin of our world of today is the sin of despair. When men and women have no hope then violence rules the world. Where there is no Hope there are only war and hate. This is why the list of war casualties continues to appear in our daily papers, why the numbers of starving, the diseased, the homeless and dispossessed have reached appalling proportions.
Here in Sydney, Australia, we have just completed two weeks of living with Hope, as we welcomed 250,000 Pilgrims, from overseas and everywhere in Australia, to our City, our Parish, our Homes as they attended the WYD (World Youth Day) Festival of Youth.
With Pope Benedict XVI also in residence, the Pilgrims led the world to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The underlying theme of this Festival was that of the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Love. These were days when once more, together with them, we renewed our Faith, our Hope and, consequently, our Love of God and Others. The Marist International Festival Banner proclaimed this boldly:
Ignite the Heart Embrace the Vision Transform the World
In Pilgrim Speak:
Talk the Talk - Talk the Walk - Walk the Talk
At the closing Mass, the Finale of the Festival, the Holy Father sent the Pilgrims forth, their Faith renewed, their Hearts full of Happiness to take this Hope to their brothers and sisters throughout the world; to bring peace where there is war, understanding where there is ignorance, to give food to the hungry, the blind and the lame. To be Missionaries of Hope to this world so that humankind will turn to Love God and keep His commandments. They go with the words of St Irenaeus ringing in their ears:
“The Glory of God is Man and Woman fully alive”!!
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