Cardinal Suenens: Why are you a man of hope?

Why are you a man of hope?

Because I believe that God is born anew each morning.

Because I believe that he is creating the world at this very moment. He did not create it at a distant and long forgotten moment in time.

It is happening now: we must be ready therefore to expect the unexpected from God.

The ways of providence are by nature surprising.

We are not prisoners of determinism, nor of the somber prognostications of sociologists.

God is here, near us, unforeseeable and loving.

I am a man of hope, not for human reasons nor from any natural optimism.

But because I believe the Holy Spirit is at work in the Church and in the world, even where his name remains unheard.

I am an optimist because I believe the Holy Spirit is the spirit of creation.

To those who welcome him, he gives each day fresh liberty, renewed joy and trust.

The long history of the Church is filled with the wonders of the Holy Spirit.

Think only of the prophets and saints, who, in times of darkness, have discovered the spring of grace and shed beams of light on our path.

I believe in the surprises of the Holy Spirit.

from Suenens' book: A New Pentecost (1974)