In the Scriptures, there are many profound passages dealing with the virtues of faith and love, but there is not so much profound reflection on the virtue of hope and its necessity for a more consoling and stronger relationship with God and especially with Jesus who, after his Ascension into heaven, is still among us, our hope of glory [Col 1:27]. When theologians generally began to pay more attention to the virtue of hope some forty years ago, one scholar suggested that one of the ways that the early Church reflected on Christian hope was to commemorate the life and death of its martyrs and they composed written works on the "acts" of various Martyrs.

There is a very consoling wisdom in this insight. One Catholic writer lamented that one of the problems of the world, and so perhaps of the Church, is that there are not enough saints. He did not mean that there are no enough canonized Saints, but rather that there are not enough really holy people in the world.

We may take these suggestions and reflect on today's feast day to help us realize more deeply the importance of holiness for the good of the Church and for all humanity.