A woman sat waiting for the bus to arrive.
There were many others waiting there with her.
Each one of them was to be awarded a very great prize. The bus was going to take them to receive this gift.
The woman sat in joyful patience for a very long time. She had a smile on her face and her eyes were closed.
The others at the bus stop paced anxiously back and forth. They looked at their watches. They stood on top of the bench to see if they could glimpse a bus coming from down the road.
Some of them grew so impatient that they called taxi cabs to drive them, as if they knew where they were going.
Others decided to walk, trusting their legs more than the very late bus.
Others called friends for rides.
Each of them left impatiently, thinking they knew where they were meant to go.
All left except the woman who sat on the bench with her eyes closed. She sat for a very long time. She never stopped smiling. It was a peaceful smile as if she had just been given the most amazing news. She kept that smile the entire time she waited.
Then the bus arrived.
The door opened.
The woman stood up and stepped up onto the bus, which took her to receive her very great prize.
Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1817)
