A series on strengthening hope in the Jubilee Year
“The world is thy ship and not thy home.”
St. Thérèse of Lisieux was onto something when she said this. It captures the hope we have of something greater than the reality we find ourselves in, the hope of heaven. Our prayers are oriented towards it, and our suffering is given meaning because of it. But how do we find it? Who can we look to as our guide as we sail along?
In Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical on hope, “Spe salvi,” we are reminded that “for over a thousand years, the Church has greeted Mary, the Mother of God, as ‘Star of the Sea’: Ave maris stella.”
A couple of parishes in our diocese are even named after her in this way. We know that we are made for more, that we ache for union with God in heaven. But we need encouragement and guidance in our hope-filled quest, the journey of our lifetime.
Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges that we cannot do it on our own, saying, “to reach him we also need lights close by – people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way. … Who more than Mary could be a star of hope for us?”
Last year, I was blessed to go on a trip to Hawaii with my little sister and my best friend. We wanted to be adventurous one day and chose to leave the beaches for a kayak and hike excursion to a waterfall. It started out as one would expect: we donned water shoes, climbed into the van to get to the river, and chatted a little bit with the other people in the group.
However, we quickly realized that our guide left something to be desired and that the adventure was bigger than we expected. Three miles of kayaking where the current doesn’t help you and four miles of hiking that includes river crossings and thick, sludgy mud is no joke! This was not an adventure for the faint of heart.
We made it to the waterfall and were looking forward to an easier journey back. However, halfway back down the river, the skies grew eerily dark and the rain pounded down! It was quite possibly the heaviest rainstorm I’ve ever been caught in, and we were experiencing it in the middle of a river in Hawaii, way behind the rest of our group.
For a minute, it was kind of funny and we laughed, but laughing quickly became a cover as I tried not to panic. Our guide had left us, we couldn’t see more than 15 feet in front of us, and the current kept pushing us backwards. How would we ever make it back?
Fortunately, tropical rainstorms pass quickly, and within 20 minutes, it calmed down. We talked each other through it, said a few Hail Marys, and made it back to the kayak launch. But how much easier would it have been if we had been accompanied by a guide who cared about us?
If we could have looked up and seen a clear sky or a guiding light, it would have been so much harder for panic and hopelessness to creep in! We are not alone to find our way through the dark moments of life. It is easy to lose sight of a goal when things don’t turn out the way you expect.
Thankfully, Mary is our guiding light, given to us by God to point the way to his everlasting life and presence. She understands what it means to both suffer and to rejoice, to ponder things in her heart and to live life fully.
She is our mother, and she loves us! Mary would never leave us abandoned on a kayak in the middle of a rainstorm – she reflects the light of Christ at all times. All we have to do is look for his light and let it lead us to our heavenly home.
This Jubilee Year, we are called to be “Pilgrims of Hope.” May we look to Mary as our guide, praying for her intercession as both the star of hope and the star of the new evangelization:
Loving mother of the Redeemer,
gate of heaven, star of the sea,
assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again.
To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator,
yet remained a virgin after as before.
You who received Gabriel’s joyful greeting,
have pity on us poor sinners.
Amen.
Katie Yankoski is the associate director of youth and young adults in the Office for Evangelization. She leads the contemporary band at St. Edward the Confessor, Richmond, where she used to be youth minister. Though often mistaken as an extrovert, she recharges on days off by reading and baking.