There are moments in life when "Hope" is all that is left to us. In those same moments, I agree, it may seem like it's not that much. But we must learn how to cling to it. That's all we need to do. In this way, sooner than we can imagine, we'll be back on track on our life's journey. So, we will experience the truth behind Samuel Smiles' words: "HOPE is like the SUN which, as we Journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us"

Isn't it true? What would be life or any journey we undertake without hope? In our worst moments, it's like a tiny light inside us which grows stronger at any step we take in the right direction.

Let's try a test, something that we could call 'Evidence to the Contrary'. In other words, let's take our struggle, frustration, our broken-hearted feeling, whatever our problem is and just let's surrender to it, completely giving up hope. You there? Ok, now what do you feel? Feelings of emptiness, desperation, desolation, a desire to not even exist, right? You feel abandoned, forsaken by God. It seems like, there's really no way out, isn't it true?

In those seemingly hopeless moments, I try to remember that, once, God Himself felt that way hanging on a Crux. Sure He knows how it feels and somehow He Lives our pain through our stuggles in the same way that we do. Who could sympathize and empathize with us in tragic moments of our life better than Jesus? However, His life and cruel Passion also taught us that the Terrible End Following on the Crux was not the purpose of all that He went through.

Just as any pain, setback, any struggle or strain of our life is not the end for us but may be the springboard for finding a greatness in us we did not know to possess. Any hardship we meet on our way, if faced with Real Hope, may indeed lead to discover in us a courage, a determination, a strength that probably could have never found their way out, if not solicited by the circumstances of our life. Problems, setbacks may lead us to pause, something we need so much from time to time but we never do unless it is forced on us.

Breaking our routine, even when it happens against our will, can help us, better than anything else, to re-frame our confusing and dis-ordinated lives, to give the right dimension to things and situations grown out of proportion.

What example of Hope we can find in Jesus' Life and Death! From the poverty at his birth to the tragedy of his death, there's the walk in Hope and Faith of the Just, who never gives up in

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