Our Lady of Hope, January 17
by VP
Posted on Wednesday January 17, 2024 at 12:00AM in Articles
Notre Dame de Pontmain, France
“But pray, my children ; God will hear you soon ; my Son suffers Himself to be moved."
"Mary is in fact the embodiment, the complete personification of Hope. Both humanity and God have had their eyes fixed on her: guilty humanity in order to see the Victim that was to expiate our transgressions, come forth from her maiden-womb : and God, in the impatience of His love, expecting from this chosen woman, the Savior His Son, the great miracle of His mercy. When the first transgression had just been committed, God’s voice was heard, and chilled our first parents with terror. The wrath of God, threatening, chastisements, sufferings, tears, all were falling upon man, and were about to cast him into the most terrible despair. There is but one gleam of hope which will ever continue to grow brighter throughout the ages: it is the woman who is announced as destined to crush the enemy's head. Inimicitias fonam inter te et mulierem, . . . . ifsa conteret caput tuum.—Gen. iii. 15.
“Hope, dear brethren, was born at the instant when that word was pronounced. From that hour the heart of man could hope in the midst of his terrible misfortune; and God himself, God who is a Father before being a Judge, and is only a Judge through our transgression,(as Tertullian says, de nostro justus), God could console His heart, giving to Himself the assurance that He would commission a woman to bring to the fallen world the hope of a glorious restoration.
“Without doubt Jesus Christ is, above all others, the hope of the world. Being God and man, He is the sole mediator by whom humanity has entered into the way of salvation, and it is by His merits alone that it hopes for grace in this world and for glory in the life to come. But, brethren, the miracle of the Incarnation was accomplished by the virtue of the Holy Ghost on the one part, and the co-operation of Mary on the other. We have Jesus Christ therefore from Mary. None has approached nearer to God than she, His highly-privileged creature ; and the part which she took in the work of salvation has been only surpassed by the Redeemer Himself. Salvation was decreed in the counsels of the Eternal, but until the Virgin Mary (to quote the words of a doctor) no human instrument was found to correspond to the divine purposes. And Saint Irenaeus concludes with these words, so glorious for the Holy Virgin : "She has been for all the human race the cause of salvation". Is not the title of Our Lady of Hope a faithful rendering of this admirable doctrine?
“But further, the formal act of the theological virtue of hope consists in the sinner's leaning (as theologians say) on Divine help in order to obtain eternal happiness. Per spem divino auxilio innitimur ad beatitudinem obtinendam. This divine help is Jesus Christ. But do not terrible hours occur in the history of a people or in the history of individuals, when the guilty, amid their remorse and the fear inspired by the gravity of their crimes, suffer themselves to be overwhelmed by the thought that, if Jesus Christ is their Mediator and their Victim, He is also Justice and their Judge?
“What is then to be done? To whom may they have recourse without terror ? How may burdened nature be helped to arise? Under what aspect will hope smile upon so many wretched sinners, and restore strength and confidence to hearts broken by fear? Where may be found the pure and simple personification of mercy, love apart from justice, and hope against hope ?
“In the world of grace, as in the world of nature, this inexhaustible treasure of forgiveness can only be met with in the depths of a mother's heart, and the smile that avails to restore courage can only appear on the lips and the brow of a mother and a virgin. “Ah!’ says Suarez, ‘it is especially when the Majesty of God pierces us with awe that we experience the need of throwing ourselves into His Mother's arms. She intercedes for us, and our unworthiness finds a compensation in her merit.” Not, indeed, brethren, that we would ever despair of God's mercy, but the feeling of our guilt fills us with a shame and a fear that are too profound. Then does the Holy Virgin calm God's wrath and restore hope to the guilty by praying to her Son, and to the Father through her Son (as the great doctor adds) for all things which please God and promote His glory.
“Nothing is more comforting than this doctrine, dear brethren. In troubled times like ours, in these days when the anger of God seems to weigh upon our nation, and souls, discouraged and disheartened, refuse to be comforted, as though all were lost, see how Heaven itself interposes to manifest this teaching to our senses by a prodigy of pity and love.
“On the 17th of January, 1871, the thunder of divine justice was still pealing; France, humbled, bathed in blood, scarce ventured to lift her eyes to heaven; Christ was turned in wrath against His Franks ; it was evident that a victim was becoming necessary to appease the anger of the Most High, and we all felt the want of a divine help, of a special love, to renew hope in the heart of stricken Israel.
“Then appeared the Virgin Mary. Priestess, Mother, Immaculate, she shows herself adorned by the Spirit of God; her robe is blue as a cloudless sky; she is decked with stars, for the star is the sign which brings joy, and announces glad tidings; the crown of command rests on her head, for she is Queen ; and she holds in her arms the great and eternal Victim, as though she would penetrate into the Holy of Holies, and lay it upon the altar, and satisfy justice in order to restore hope to the guilty, and enable him to return free to his duties and his destinies.
“So did she appear at Pontmain. There did children of pure and simple mind see the Virgin Mary grasp the crucifix, red with the blood of her Divine Son, hold it in her two hands as the priest holds the sacred Host, and present it to France, as though she would have said: ‘O beloved people, O faithless people, behold Jesus Christ, thy hope and thy ransom ; renew thy courage; believe once more in a glorious future.” You remember, brethren, the words of the apparition : “But pray, my children ; God will hear you soon ; my Son suffers Himself to be moved.’
“O Virgin O Mother our Hope . Through what save thy prayers has thy Son suffered Himself to be moved? We, alas ! have forgotten, ignored, betrayed Him; we were smitten and stupefied with terror; prayer expired upon our trembling lips. Who then was interceding for us, while we were wholly engrossed in our transgressions and our sorrow ! Who begged for pardon? Who would call herself the Mother of the sinner, and the Mother of the Judge? Who was able with authority and love to remind Sovereign Justice that France would not perish, forasmuch as it is the kingdom of Mary : Regnum Gallia, regnum Maria, nunquam peribit.
“Those words of a great Pope remain as the formula of one of those historical laws on which nations ought to base their hopes. Minds which no longer possess faith, and even Christians who have allowed their faith to grow weak under the influence of the too common naturalism of our days, heedlessly remove God and the supernatural order from the affairs of this world. They attach no value to those great lines which Heaven itself has taken care to imprint on the history of a nation. In their eyes these broad, deep lines are like the characters of an inscription without authority and effaced by time. In their eyes everything is shut within a fatal cycle, in which nations are moved to and fro, undergoing the mournful necessity of growing in order to wither and of coming to an end in the humiliation of an irresistible decay. The thoughts we cherish, brethren, are more sublime and more comforting. True Christians hope in Him who holds the universe in His hand, who rules over all times, who anticipates all councils, who can subdue everything to His will. They see indeed that all things are subjected to a higher power; but they know also that that power is neither deaf nor blind, that it is willing to subject itself to prayer, that it gives to the nation which pleases it sure promises and imperishable resources.”
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To that place for ever hallowed by the presence of God's Mother, and made a fertile source of blessings, you will often resort to pray for yourselves, for your families, for France, for Pius IX. : there you will cast yourselves upon your knees in the earnestness of sacred ardor, and with your hands clasped and your eyes bathed in tears, will cry with us from the bottom of your heart :
“‘O our Lady of Hope, O Immaculate, O Queen, O Mother, O Virgin Priestess, turn thine eyes upon us, upon those who are dear to us, upon France, upon the Church, upon the Vicar of thy Divine Son! We are at thy feet, groaning and entreating ; thou dost present to us the bleeding Host of Calvary: we receive it from thy hands; we press it to our heart: we adore it ; we love it. Ah Mary, through Jesus give us the victory !
Grant us to see souls return to their baptism and to a Christian life! Grant us to see France strong and glorious ! Grant us to see the Church triumphing over the enemies that are savagely bent on her ruin. Grant us to see the Vicar of Jesus Christ seated on the chair of Peter, free, beloved, heard of all ! Grant us to behold the reign of Jesus Christ over the nations which are His heritage! Grant us all, O Mary, to enter with thee into glory ! O our Lady of Pontmain, O our Lady of Hope, spes nostra, save France, save the Church !”
Jules Denys Le Hardy du Marais, by divine mercy and the authority of the Holy Apostolic See, Bishop of the Church at Laval, to the clergy and faithful of our diocese, health and apostolic benediction in our Lord Jesus Christ. January 6th, 1877.
