Despite any and all announcements to the contrary, the Theological Virtue of HOPE has not been suppressed nor abrogated.

HOPE is the Fruit of the Second Glorious Mystery of the Rosary, the Ascension.

I love the account of the Ascension in Mark 16, because it says very bluntly that Our Lord, in His last moments to be with the Apostles corporeally before Ascending to the Right Hand of the Father, basically chewed them out – upbraided is the word used – for their FAITHLESSNESS, their incredulity and hardness of heart.

Yes, despite the fact that the events of the previous three years, while certainly prophesied, were UNPRECEDENTED, and despite the fact that the Apostles were all a bunch of unlettered working men with zero authority within the context of the Old Covenant Levitical paradigm, Our Lord still chewed them out for their failure to “get it”, which was NOT a function of education or even Levitical status, but of FAITH.

And then He ascended before their eyes, and even though Our Lord had just commanded them to go and do what seemed impossible in every sense, to spread the Gospel to the entire world, they were so filled with Hope, that they did it.

Folks, there is ALWAYS hope. There is always a visible path forward. There is always a proverbial “trail of breadcrumbs”, and God is God and CANNOT be hamstrung or out-maneuvered. Ever. And WE are called, just as the Apostles were almost 2000 years ago to go “git ‘er dun”, and we have the selfsame Paraclete (He goes by “Holy Ghost” in many parts) to help us.

Beware ANYONE who preaches a faux gospel of hopelessness. Beware anyone who tries to tell you that “peace of mind” comes from giving up, and that a retreat into adolescent, effeminate, narcissistic “not my problem-ism” is virtuous.

I think I heard something like this at Mass once…