Dear Friends,
During this Jubilee year we have been reflecting on hope. Of the three theological virtues, it is probably the hardest to understand. Too many of us confuse hope with optimism. Last week, Pope Leo, in his Wednesday audience, said that hope is a decision. A decision to live with our eyes fixed on Jesus. Hope is based on trust.
Pope Francis, in inaugurating the Jubilee, reminded us that true hope is not built on human words or assurances, but on God’s Word and his promise of salvation and eternal life. Like faith, it is not a human attitude or opinion, but it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the nature and meaning of the virtue. It states:
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. (CCC 1817)
God placed in each of our hearts the desire and longing for true happiness. The virtue of hope responds to this innermost desire and helps us to place our trust in God. The Catechism goes on to say:
[This virtue] takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps human persons from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity. (CCC 1818)
St. Paul talked about it when he said, “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance. In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness.” This gift of the Holy Spirit helps us to envision what still cannot be seen and which would otherwise be impossible to expect.
For St. Paul, hope is a person; it is Christ Himself. It is more than simply a desire for the joys of eternal life; rather, it is a desire to be with Jesus. To be with Jesus forever is our heart’s deepest desire, even more profound than its desire for life itself. It arises from the disciple’s sincere love of Jesus. St. Paul tells us in a powerful passage, “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It is this assurance of the love and presence of Jesus that allows any of us who are suffering to find encouragement and comfort. Jesus himself, and his love for each of us, is the reason for our hope.
Our hope then is not based on the things of this world but on Jesus and the things of heaven. With our eyes focused there, the daily news cycle should neither frighten us nor thrill us. Hope is not a bet on the things of our country or its economy. It is well beyond that, and it empowers us to love in the ways that Jesus taught.
Peace,
Fr. Damian