Pope: Real Hope Anchors our Lives

"God in man -- man in God: Now this is not a theoretical truth but a real truth. For this reason, Christian hope, founded in Christ, is not an illusion but...an anchor that penetrates heaven, where Christ has gone before us."

VATICAN CITY (Zenit) - Christian hope is not an illusion since in Christ, life has a firm anchor, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope affirmed this before praying the Regina Caeli today with thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square.

"Today the solemnity of the Ascension of Christ into heaven is celebrated in Italy and in various other countries," the Holy Father recalled. "After the Ascension the first disciples remain together in the cenacle around the Mother of Jesus in fervent expectation of the gift of the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus.

"On this first Sunday of May, the month of Mary, we too relive this experience, more intensely feeling Mary's spiritual presence."

The Pontiff noted Jesus' insistence on the importance of his return to the Father: "Indeed he came into the world to bring man back to God, not at the level of ideas -- like a philosopher or a master of wisdom -- but in reality, like the shepherd who wants to bring his sheep back into the sheepfold."

And, Benedict XVI affirmed, Christ's ascension was also "completely for us."

"It was for us that he came down from heaven and for us that he ascended into heaven, after having been made like us in all things, humiliated unto death on a cross, and after having touched the abyss of the maximal distance from God," he said.

"It was precisely because of this that the Father was pleased with him and exalted him, returning to him the fullness of his glory, but now with our humanity.

"God in man -- man in God: Now this is not a theoretical truth but a real truth. For this reason, Christian hope, founded in Christ, is not an illusion but, as the Letter to the Hebrews says, 'in him we have an anchor of our life,' an anchor that penetrates heaven, where Christ has gone before us."

This anchoring is what man of every age most needs, the Holy Father said. And here again, he contended, "is the stupendous meaning of Mary's presence among us. Turning our gaze to her, like the first disciples did, we are immediately directed to the reality of Jesus: The Mother points to the Son, who is no longer among us physically but awaits us in the Father's house."