Some time ago, I had the ultimate privilege to sit with a Sister who knew she was in the midst of journeying to heaven. She was in acute liver failure. As we prayed the Rosary together, she would look at her hands, which had an orange tinge to them. At the end of each decade, she would pray, “Lord, I am coming home to you! I hope and pray that you will accept me with Your open arms of mercy! Jesus, I hope in you!” When she prayed this prayer, she would glow in eager excitement of finally reaching heaven, of finally seeing her “Lordsy,” her nickname for Jesus.
I could not help but think of this moment as I continue my series on hope during this Ordinary Year of Jubilee. In the book Mercy and Hope by Mike Pacer, the author writes, “We rejoice in hope when we focus on hope, embrace hope, and determine to hope. To rejoice in hope is to regularly remind ourselves of the cause for our hope – the loving mercy of God. To rejoice in hope is to return again and again to the joyful message of salvation found in Scripture – the message that our God loves us so much that, although we were sinners, he became man, suffered, died, and rose so that we might be completely forgiven and that we might be able to share in the infinite joy he desires for us. To rejoice in hope is to constantly cry out in the words given to St. Faustina by our Lord, ‘Jesus, I trust in you!’”1
I am completely knocked over by the fact that this Sister – whose name escapes me now, since I met her only once and she lived in Chicago – epitomized what the author’s paragraph describes above. In my mind, she is an example of holiness! She is a hidden saint!
I pray that her sentiment will take hold in the hearts of all my readers! Jesus, I trust in you! Jesus, I hope in you!
1 Pacer, Mike. Mercy and Hope. Lighthouse Catholic Publishing, 2015. Pg. 146.
By Sister Geralyn Schmidt, SCC, Special to The Witness
