Chapter 7: Personal Experiences 116. Trust and hope are typical of John Paul II's teaching, as shown, among other things, by the title he gave his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope. But, are there reasons to hope? Do you yourself hope in a better future for the Church and the world? The Holy Father held an audience for Regnum Christi members in Saint Peter's Square on January 4, 2001, for the 60th anniversary of the Legion of Christ's founding. I am firmly convinced that the Church, Christ, God's Kingdom, will triumph in history. Revelation tells us this clearly. What we don't know is how we will reach that final point when the power of Christ will submit all things, including death, to the Father. We don't know when that time will come, or what twists and turns the story of the Church and mankind must take before getting there. We know that the weeds will grow alongside the wheat until then (Mt 13:24-30) and in the meantime the life of man will be a constant struggle, as the book of Job says (see 7:1). Precisely because numerous evils would beset our existence Christ taught us to trust, not to be afraid, to hope against all hope. In times of difficulty in my life as a founder, in order to face the future serenely it has always helped me to read the verse from Psalm 37 that invites us to put all our worries in the Lord's hands and to trust him absolutely: "Commit your fate to Yahweh, trust in him and he will act" (v. 5). The Pope's teaching follows the same vein. Like him, I firmly believe that there are indeed reasons to hope. Reasons based more on supernatural motives than on an economic, political or social analysis of the present reality of the world and the Church. We can hope because redemption has already been accomplished on the cross and in the resurrection. If there had been no cross and if Christ had not risen, our hope would be utterly in vain, totally unfounded. We can hope because the Holy Spirit helps his Church at all times, as Consoler and Advocate, guide to the truth, and Teacher of perfect love. Yes, we can hope, we can and must overcome the fears that prey on us and paralyze us, trying to whisper in our hearts that hope is useless and vain. I can tell you, as a personal experience, that I had many an occasion to exercise hope when I was founding the Legion of Christ. Humanly speaking many times it seemed as if everything was against it happening, sometimes it looked as if the congregation itself would be suppressed, everything would disappear, it had only been a dream, beautiful but no more than an empty dream. Yet Christian hope, theological hope, beckoned me to discover God's provident plan in every step we took and showed me that if one door was shut another would open on the spot, revealing new and unimagined horizons. Yes, we can hope, hope is not vain, for as Saint Paul says, Christian hope never lets us down (Rom 5:5).