0
0
Illustration: Allegorical personification of Hope: Hope in a Prison of Despair, 1887, by Evelyn De Morgan
Pope Francis’ Cycle of Catechesis on Vices and Virtues 19 Hope
Paul VI Audience Hall – Wednesday, 8 May 2024
Cycle of Catechesis. Vices and Virtues. 18. Hope
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
In the last catechesis we began to reflect on the theological virtues.
There are three of them: faith, hope and charity. Last time, we reflected on faith.
Now it is the turn of hope.
“Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, trusting in the promises of Christ and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1817).
These words confirm to us that hope is the answer offered to our heart, when the absolute question arises in us:
“What will become of me? What is the purpose of the journey? What is the destiny of the world?”.
We all know that a negative answer to these questions produces sadness.
If there is nothing at the beginning and nothing at the end, then we wonder why we should go on.
Hence the despair of man, the feeling of the meaninglessness of everything.
And many may rebel: “I have tried to be virtuous, prudent, just, strong, temperate.
I have also been a person of faith…. What was the use of my struggle if everything ends here?”.
If there were no hope, all the other virtues risk crumbling and ending up as ashes.
If no reliable tomorrow, no bright horizon, were to exist, one would only have to conclude that virtue is a futile effort.
“Only when the future is certain as a positive reality will it be possible to live the present as well” said Benedict XVI (Encyclical Letter Spe salvi, 2 – Hope saves).
Christians do not have hope by their own merit.
If they believe in the future, it is because Christ died and rose again and gave us his Spirit.
“Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present” (Spe salv., 1).
In this sense, we say once again, that hope is a theological virtue.
It does not come from us, it is not a stubbornness that we try to convince ourselves of, but it is a gift that comes directly from God.
To many doubting Christians who have not been fully reborn to hope, the Apostle Paul presents the new logic of the Christian experience, saying:
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
Then those also who are asleep in Christ have also perished.
If we have only hoped in Christ for this life, we are the most pitiful of all people” (1 Cor 15:17-19).
It is as if he were saying: if you believe in the resurrection of Christ, then you know with certainty that neither defeat nor death is forever. But if you do not believe in the resurrection of Christ, then everything is empty, even the preaching of the Apostles.
Hope is a virtue against which we often sin: in our bad nostalgia, in our melancholy, when we think that the happiness of the past is buried forever.
We sin against hope when we become despondent because of our sins, forgetting that God is merciful and greater than our heart.
And let us not forget this, brothers and sisters: God forgives all, God always forgives.
We are the ones who tire of asking for forgiveness.
But let us not forget this truth: God forgives everything, God forgives always.
We sin against hope when we become despondent because of our sins;
we sin against hope when ‘autumn’ cancels out ‘spring’ in us.
we sin against hope when God’s love ceases to be an eternal fire and we do not have the courage to make decisions that commit us for a lifetime.
The world today is in great need of this Christian virtue!
The world needs hope, just as it needs patience which is a virtue closely related to hope.
Patient people are weavers of goodness.
They stubbornly desire peace, and even if some of them are hasty and everything now,
Patience is able to wait.
Even when many around us have succumbed to disillusionment, those who are inspired by hope and who are patient will be able to go through the darkest of nights.
Hope and patience go together.
Hope is the virtue of those who are young at heart; and here age does not count.
There are also the elderly whose eyes are full of light, who live in a constant quest for the future.
Think of the two great old people of the Gospel, Simeon and Anna.
They never tired of waiting and they saw the last stretch of their earthly journey blessed by the encounter with the Messiah, whom they recognized in Jesus, brought to the Temple by His parents.
What a grace if it were so for all of us!
If after a long pilgrimage, our hearts were filled with an unprecedented joy as we laid down our saddlebags and staff,, and we too could exclaim: “”Lord, now let your servant go in peace, / according to your word; / for my eyes have seen your salvation, / which you have prepared in the presence of all nations, / a light for revelation to the Gentiles, / and for glory to your people Israel”” (Lk 2:29-32).
Brothers and sisters, let us go forward and ask for the grace to have hope, hope with patience.
Let us always look forward to that final encounter.
Let us always see that the Lord is always close to us, that death will never, never be victorious
Let us go ahead and ask the Lord to give us this great virtue of hope, accompanied by patience.
Thank you.
