FAUSTO GOMEZ, OP
After trying to answer the question what is Hope, and the question who are those who hope, that is after reflecting on the nature of hope and on hopeful pilgrims on the journey of life, we try to answer, in the third column, the question: What do we hope for? Let us consider hereafter the main object of Christian hope and its secondary objects.
Hope has three essential characteristics: personal, communitarian, and cosmic. The classical definition of hope points to us the subjects of hope (the hopeful pilgrims) and the object and objects of hope. By examining the objects of theological hope, we shall know better the nature of Christian hope.
The foundation, object and end of hope is eternal life, that is, the encounter with the Lord of glory and mercy, the full communion with God, eternal happiness or the end of our hopeful journey of life. To be able to expect eternal life, perfect happiness, the will of man needs the gift of the infused (theological) virtue of hope. We read in the Vatican II Constitution Gaudium et Spes:“All have been created to the image and likeness of God…, and all are called to an identical end, that is God himself” (GS 24).
The Israelites of the Old Testament expected successive objects of hope: the posterity of Abraham, the Promised Land, the return to the fatherland, and the messianic era. Old Testament hope is generally this-wordily hope, with some exceptions, in particular the book of Wisdom, which speaks of the hope of immortality of the just (Ws 3:4; 5:14).
Christians hope the glorification of the Lord, the glory of the Father, the manifestation of this glory in the saints – in us all. They hope salvation, the inheritance of the saints, the Kingdom of God, eternal life. Christian hope includes the immortality not only of the soul but also of the body (we are body-soul). The object of hope – a future good, which is difficult but possible to attain – is objectively God himself, and subjectively, the beatific vision, or the vision of God by human beings in heaven. The terminative object of hope is God, as our ultimate end.
Thus, in traditional theology, the primary object of hope is eternal life (1 Jn 2:25), always a veiled object for the human person. God is the object of hope and at the same time the object of fear: of hope, by reason of his infinite mercy; of fear, by his infinite justice, which is merciful justice.
The motive object of hope is basically God’s infinite love for humankind – and for his creation. Saint Thomas, expressing Christian tradition, speaks of the two fundamental motives of hope, namely, God’s attributes of omnipotence and mercy.
Our life is purposefully directed towards heaven. Our life “is hope, the mystery of absolute future,” “the expectation of heaven,” which is “the full realization of hope”. Subjectively, our life is purposefully directed towards heaven. Heaven represents the most powerful motive of human life (L. Boros, Living in Hope). Heaven is the goal of our life. And we hope in heaven for ourselves and for others: hope is not a selfish longing for heaven, but personal and communitarian hope: I hope that you and I – and all – will attain heaven.
Words to ponder: We are not hoping for any success, but for the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of his reign (Jacques Ellul, Essential Spiritual Writings).
We walk on the path of Jesus with faithful hope by steps of love. The role Jesus assigned to us: “Make disciples from all nations andpeoples; baptize them and teach them to live according to the Good News of salvation (cf. Mat 28:19-20). Our faith teaches us that we are not of the world, that we are in the world, but detached from the world (as a representation of evil), and thus ready to contribute to the salvation of the world. Hence, detachment and involvement: to be detached from the world and to be committed to the mission of saving humanity for the Father, through Christ, in the Spirit.
How to be closer to heaven? The essential condition of Jesus: “Love God and love all neighbors.” St. Augustine: We can only walk forward to heaven by steps of love. Truly, God is the future of those who know to love (José Antonio Pagola).
Christian life is a pilgrimage to the house of the Father – to heaven – with and by the Way, that is Jesus Christ, with the light and guide of the Holy Spirit. The then Congregation of the Clergy said: the on-going or permanent formation for all followers of Christ is a process of gradual and continuous configuration to Christ in his being and his acting (The Gift of the Priestly Vocation, December, 2016).
Secondary but also important objects of Christian hope are all things related to God, including the objects of our legitimate human hopes. Secondary motives of our hope are God’s grace and graces and the instruments of grace, including the humanity of Christ, the sacraments, our graced good works as expressions of love, the intercession of the saints, principally of Mother Mary. Mother Mary, to whom we ought to have special devotion – filial love -, is an important icon of our hope and unique intercessor before God: Mary is, according to Vatican II, a sign of sure hope and solace for the pilgrim people of God (LG 68).
And to close! What does it mean to believe in everlasting life for the human person? St. Thomas answers: It means union with God, which entails perfect vision of God (called “the beatific vision”), perfect knowledge and praise of God, perfect fulfillment of desires, perfect security and companionship of the blessed. How wonderful: “Eternal life consists in the pleasant companionship of all the blessed, a companionship that is replete of delight since each one will possess all things together with the blessed” (The Aquinas Catechism, What Christians Believe, The Apostles’ Creed”). Heaven is “the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longing, the state of supreme, definitive happiness, the communion of life and love with the Blessed Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed” (CCC 1024).
What are the main dimensions of hope? In our next column we shall try to answer this question.
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