On Hope in God Alone and Confidence in Him

Although it is so necessary in our unseen warfare, as we have said, to place no hope in ourselves whatsoever, yet if we merely put aside every hope in ourselves and despair of ourselves without finding another support, we shall either immediately flee from the field of battle or be utterly defeated and taken captive by our enemies. Therefore, together with the complete renunciation of ourselves, we also need to plant in our heart a perfect hope in God and complete confidence in him—that is, we need to feel with the whole heart that we have absolutely no one to hope in but him alone, and that from no other than him alone can we expect every good thing, every help, and every victory. For just as from ourselves—who are nothing—we expect nothing but stumbling and falling, on account of which we put aside every hope in ourselves, so on the contrary we shall certainly receive from God every victory, as soon as we arm our heart with a living hope in him and full confidence in receiving help from him, according to the testimony of the Psalmist: ”In him my heart trusted, and he helped me” (Ps. 27:7).

The following reflections will help us to establish ourselves in such hope and, through it, to receive every kind of help:

1) That we are seeking help from God, who as the Almighty can do whatever he wills, and consequently can also help us.

2) That we are seeking it from God, who as the All-knowing and All-wise knows all things in the most perfect manner, and consequently knows full well what is most fitting for the salvation of each one of us.

3) That we are seeking such help from God, who as the infinitely Good stands before us with inexpressible love, always desirously ready, from hour to hour and from minute to minute, to provide every help needed for us to win a complete victory in the spiritual warfare active within us—the very moment we run to his embrace with firm hope.

And how is it possible that our good Shepherd—who walked for three years seeking the lost sheep with such a strong voice that his throat became parched, along paths so difficult and thorny that he shed all his blood and gave his life—how, I ask, is it possible that he, now that this sheep is following after him, is turning to him with love and calling upon him for help, should not turn his eyes upon it, should not take it upon his divine shoulders and, having brought it into the company of the heavenly angels, not celebrate a festal gathering with them on this account? If our God does not cease seeking with great diligence and love—like the Gospel coin—a blind and deaf sinner, how is it possible to suppose that he would abandon him now, when the sinner, like a lost sheep, cries out and calls upon his Shepherd? And who will ever believe that God—who unceasingly knocks at a person’s heart, wishing to enter within and sup with him, according to the word of the Apocalypse (Rev. 3:20), imparting to him his gifts—who will believe that this same God, when a person opens his heart to him and calls upon him, should remain deaf and refuse to enter?

4) The fourth and final way to revive firm hope in God and to draw his swift help is to review in memory all the instances of God’s swift help recorded in the Divine Scriptures. These instances, so numerous, show us most clearly that no one who has hoped in God was ever left in shame and without help. ”Look upon the generations of old,” cries the wise Sirach, ”and see: who ever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame?” (Sir. 2:10).

Armed with these four weapons, my brother, go forth valiantly to your task of warfare and wage it with courage, in full confidence that you will be given the victory. For by them you will certainly acquire perfect hope in God, and such hope will constantly draw to you the help of God and clothe you in all-victorious strength. Both the one and the other will at last firmly root in you a complete non-reliance upon yourself. I do not miss the opportunity to remind you of this non-reliance upon yourself even in this chapter, because I know of no one for whom such a reminder would ever be unnecessary. So deeply embedded in us and so firmly clinging to us is this self-esteem—as though we were something, and something not small—that it always lives secretly in our heart as a certain subtle and imperceptible movement, even when we are confident that we have no hope in ourselves at all but are, on the contrary, filled with complete hope in God alone. In order to avoid, as much as you can, such secret self-conceit and to act without any reliance upon yourself but with hope in God alone, arrange yourself each time so that the awareness and sense of your weakness precedes the contemplation of God’s omnipotence, and both of these precede each of your actions.