By Fr. Christopher Foeckler, MJ •  St. Josaphat Formation Center • Phoenix, AZ

In 1982, Fr. John Hardon wrote about the sad state of affairs in our American culture and offered hope-filled advice that is needed all the more now, thirty years later, as our culture seems to be suffering a malaise of ‘creeping despair’ in the face of so many modern day challenges to Christianity in the U.S. and abroad. Fr. Hardon wrote prophetically: “It is impossible to live in the United States these days and not be affected by the culture that surrounds us, notably for our purpose, by the mood of sadness that pervades the atmosphere because so many people are wanting in hope. In fact, the empty laughter on television; the crude, obscene jokes; the make-believe romances in millions of books and magazines, on the radio and screen; the expensive pleasures of the body and the extravagant forms of comfort and entertainment that have given our country the dubious title of ‘Playboy America’ – these are not signs of prosperity at all, they are symptoms of a disease and the disease is a creeping despair.”*

“If we Christians and Catholics are to protect ourselves from being infected and indeed are to help others overcome this disease, we must look to our own virtue of hope and make sure that we at least know that life is worth living and that even suffering and death have a meaning, as they do. Our hope has a foundation which is faith, and a source which is grace to be nourished by prayer, developed by patience and strengthened by the love of Jesus Christ who is the final object of our hope in that eternity where possession will replace all our earthly desires.”

The Feasts of the Holy Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows this month are intended by the Church to strengthen our conviction that “life is worth living and that even suffering and death have meaning.” The Cross of Christ our Lord by which His beloved Mother Mary stood is not the final word in the work of Redemption, but a means, albeit necessary, for the victory of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth and in Heaven through His Glorious Resurrection. “I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” Jn 16:33

*Spiritual Life in the Modern World, Fr John Hardon, 1982, pp. 42-43.

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