Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Maria Goretti, the 12-year old girl who refused to submit to a boy's lustful desire and was murdered. Her life is another clear manifestation of God's mysterious guidance in our loves, that He is so powerful that He can work through all the tragedies that occur in our lives to bring about good, to make us better people.
The first reading gives us the life of Joseph. When he was flung into a pit, sold as a slave, taken from a foreign land, and then imprisoned for years, Joseph probably thought that he was already in a hopeless situation that nobody and nothing could save him. But, God really works through the events of our lives. God ultimately place him in a position of great power in a pagan land. This gave Joseph big opportunities to feed his people, the Jews, especially his brothers who abandoned him, during the seven years of famine.
In the gospel, we can see the calling of the Twelve. When we consider where these men came from and what background they have, based on our own judgement, they are not qualified to become disciples. But see what they became. Their lives were transformed by knowing Jesus. They even learned to live with one another. They were able to bring about the best in them, and set aside and eventually forget their differences for the sake of the mission that Jesus entrusted to them.
If you see the turn of events in the life of Maria Goretti, Joseph and the Disciples, and how God work through these individuals, we will say that there is no such thing as "hopeless individual" or "hopeless situation". Because, God's priority is for each individual to experience His loving hands and help him/her discover the goodness that is already in his/her heart. Even in adversity, or situations that seem hopeless, God's loving guidance is always at work. We don't feel or recognize it, but the turn of events after those will help us realize we have never been abandoned.
The attacker of St. Maria Goretti is another message. When Maria died, her attacker became a faithful man. When he was released from prison, he went to Maria's mother and asked for forgiveness. He became a lay brother that always shared Christ-centered love and forgiveness to others.
When you feel hopeless about somebody or something, ask for the grace of wisdom to understand the Presence of God working through and in us.