Jesus Christ, in pointing out heaven to us in His glorious Ascension, awakens all the attention of our souls to the supreme object of Christian hope. This object is hidden from our carnal eyes; our weak reason is unable to discover it, but faith brings us into its sacred precincts. Herein we perceive the truth of the expression of Saint Paul: "Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for; the demonstration [evidence] of things that appear not." (Hebrews 11)
Christian, listen to the language of faith: All on earth is vanity; and no created object in which our dreams of happiness may be centred can possibly fill the immense chasm of our desires. Human glory, riches, beauty, love, knowledge, virtue itself say to us: I am not the happiness for which God has placed in your soul a desire, to a certain degree, infinite; look beyond me. "Seek the things that are above." Above! Yes, it is to heaven you are tending. Be not deceived by the fleeting images that pass under your notice. Be grounded in hope. One day the thick veil which hides from you the secrets of the Divinity will be torn away by the bountiful and merciful hand of your Creator. You will pass from the region of darkness into the realms of light; for it is written in Holy Scripture: "In Thy light we will see the light itself" (Psalm 35) And again in 1 Corinthians 13: "We will see Him face to face; we will see Him as He is."
As He is! How wonderful! That is to say, we will see Him in His infinite essence, in the harmony of His admirable perfections, in the acts of His incomprehensible life, in the trinity of persons and unity of nature, in all things which comprise His knowledge and His power. You will be enraptured by so much beauty; you will feel yourself so environed by the infinite love, and yourself so penetrated with lore and delight, that you will become like to the object of your felicity. "When He shall appear we will be like to Him." (1 John 3) Your very body, only vile dust, worth almost nothing, will go to rejoin your soul. Less corruptible, more agile, more brilliant than the light of the proud stars which illuminate the firmament, it will take possession of purified space, a limitless paradise, in which ineffable joys await its coming. The contemplation and possession of God in a transfigured flesh - behold your happiness for ever and for ever!
But how can I hope to attain this sublime end? My weak and grovelling nature is chained to the earth.. Be tranquil; you have heard your Saviour say to you before He ascended into heaven: "I go to prepare a place for you." True to His word, He shows to His divine Father His glorified wounds, and "He ever lives to be our perpetual intercessor"; and His intercession causes torrents of His grace to flow upon those whom He has redeemed. Grace is, therefore, in our souls the pledge and the very germ of the glory of heaven.
In what, then, consists Christian hope? Firmly to await the vision and eternal possession of God, and to obtain it, to look for His grace; to look for it, since God has promised it and is faithful to His promises; to look for it and never be discouraged, notwithstanding the length of our exile on earth, or the weakness of nature in being exposed to all manner of infirmities and tribulations, or the terrible demands of the passions, or the tenacity of our failings; to look for it without ever despairing of the divine mercy, notwithstanding the number, enormity, and depth of our falls, or their monstrous ingratitude; to look for it without confiding presumptuously in our own strength or counting too much on the goodness of God, thereby to be emboldened in sin, nor expecting God to come to us at the last moment, when we have forgotten Him many years; to look for it, finally, by praying for grace and corresponding with grace. This is the meaning of Christian hope.
What a strange spectacle the world gives us in relation to Christian hope! See the vast throngs that rush eagerly and blindly after all manner of earthly goods, as if these were their only end. In beholding them who can think men were made for heaven? If we cannot possibly bring them to a halt they will indeed deceive themselves. Let us not be moved or troubled by the scandal they give, but rather direct our attention to those who live here below conformably to their hopes. Let us see them despising generously the goods of the world, incessantly resisting the gross desires which bend the soul to the earth; marching joyfully on the road of duty, receiving piously, preserving carefully, and ardently developing the graces which Heaven sends upon their souls. Let us listen to their languishing grief because of the length of their pilgrimage and the sorrows of their exile; in them it is easy to see the future possessors of the divine essence, citizens of eternal mansions.
Let us take part in their canticle of praise, and with them sing: O Lord, Thou hast promised us a happier land; our souls rejoice in Thy promise! Give us Thy grace and we will go into Thy house. "I have rejoiced in the things spoken to me; we will go into the house of the Lord."
- text taken from Fruits of the Rosary, by Father Jacques-Marie Louis Monsabre, O.P.