FAUSTO GOMEZ, OP
Relevant dimensions of hope are eschatological and temporal, personal, communitarian, and cosmic.
ESCHATOLOGICAL AND TEMPORAL DIMENSIONS OF HOPE
The Christian hopes in the “here-after” and in the “here-now.” Christian eschatology is undividedly transcendent and immanent, anticipation of the future in the present and anticipating present of the future. The integral salvation of the human person begins now. In hope we expect our salvation at the end of time – eschatological salvation – and we work in time to attain it. Hence, integrates the eschatological and temporal (historical and social liberation).
Christian hope is eschatological. Biblical hope is deeply permeated by the eschatological dimension of Christian hope. The final end determines our hope. Eschaton is the final coming of Christ. It is our telos, our end and the end of the whole creation redeemed by Christ.
In Christian hope we have a double eschatology: an absolute or definitive eschatology – the coming of the Kingdom at the end of time -, and an ecclesial and relative eschatology – the limited anticipation and realization of the Kingdom of God on earth.
Christian hope is also temporal. It is hope for our time and for all times in history. It is a historical and social hope. It commits us to the present, to the transformation of the present for the future.
Vatican II calls Christians to work for a better world as a demand of the coming Kingdom of God. “The expectation of a new earth must not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating this one. For here grows the body of a new human family, a body which even now is able to give some kind of foreshadowing of the new age” (GS 39).
In the past, the vertical/eschatological dimension of hope was underlined. After Vatican II, in particular, the horizontal/temporal dimension was also given substantial importance. Indeed, our hope is not just “a pie in the sky: “If we hope for pie in the sky, can we ever really look for potatoes on earth? “This hope is not a pie in the sky; it is hope for the resurrection of our potato-hopes,” “the eschatological hope must be hope for all other hopes, or it is not eschatological” (R. Jenson, The Futurist Option). An authentic Christian hope integrates and elevates legitimate human hopes: grace improves nature!
The human being lives in the present rooted in his past and oriented to his future. Life is love of the present, memory of the past and promise of the future. The full present is built on the wholeness of the past. We are grateful for the good past, and sorry for the evil. And also for the wholeness of the future that we accept in hope and anticipate in love. We have to live our time in anticipation of eternal life (O. G. Cardedal, Raíz dela Esperanza).
PERSONAL AND COMMUNITARIAN DIMENSIONS OF HOPE
Theological hope is personal and also communitarian. I hope to be saved; I hope salvation for others particularly for those close to me (Cf. St. Thomas, STh, II-II, 17, 3). With the eschatological dimension, Sacred Scripture stresses the communitarian dimension of hope.
Hope is personal. The subject of hope is the human being and the act of his hope is his personal deed. Subject and act are open to the other, to the community and the whole creation. I want to be saved, and, therefore, I have to be continually converted – to God, to others and to nature. Each one of us is responsible for his salvation. God gives the gift of hope to each person, to each believer so that each one may know the God of hope by himself/herself. (Cf. Is 54:13; Jr 31:34: Ho 2:22; Jn 2:27; 6:45). Each one of us is asked to live his/her hope. Living our hope is not transferable. However, we can only live our personal hope with others and for others.
Hope is communitarian. The most adequate expression of the verb “hope” is, without doubt, “I hope in you for us.” Indeed, “hope is only possible at the level of the we.” I plus thou, M. Buber tells us,equals we. In the we, the I and the thou aremutuallyenriched. Moreover, one can only encounter and accept a thou when encountering and accepting the Eternal Thou.” Truly, “the hope in which we live is not a hope for me, but a hope for us” (J. R. Wilson; Gabriel Marcel, Homo Viator, and Martin Buber, I and Thou).
Christian life is a life markedly communitarian. To live means to live in Christ who died for all (2 Cor 5:15), and to live in Christ implies to live in solidarity: “One in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28), “we are members of one another” (Eph 4:25), people who help each other to carry the burdens of life (Gal 6:2). It was said at the beginning of Christianity: Solus christianus, nullus christianus – A solitary Christian, not any Christian.
Living theological or Christian hope is loving hope – hope “informed” by charity. Hope -faithful and living hope – moves the Christians to eagerly want and be committed to the salvation of the whole humanity. Thus, Christian hope is deeply concerned with mission: the mission of evangelization, if preaching the Good News that is Jesus.
Hope is, indeed, a firm impulse to change the world in the perspective of God’s promises. It is a revolutionary force which strives to create conditions favorable to the women and men most loved by God, the poorest and the weakest (F. Kertiens).
HOPE IS ALSO COSMIC HOPE.
On the way to beatitude, Christians wait for the redemption of the world (Rom 8:19-25). Their theological hope is not only communitarian, but also cosmic. In a sense, the whole universe expects a new heaven and a new earth. “Through each human being, the cosmos hopes: in the reality of man the cosmic mineral, vegetative and animal obtains culmination… Already in the natural order… the subject of hope is ‘I in the universe,” or, better, ‘I with the universe’” (Pedro Lain Entralgo).
St. Augustine wrote: Already converted and in love with God, “the universe and everything in it tells me to love you, and tells the same thing to us all, so that we are without excuse” (Confessions, Bk Ten, 6). When young Therese of the Child Jesus, remembering the marvelous beauty of God’s creation, writes: “My heart longed for other marvels. It had contemplated earthly beauties long enough; those of heaven were the object of its desires and to win them for souls I was willing to become a prisoner” (Story of a Soul, Manuscript A, Chapt. VI).
Reflecting on Gen 1:28, Protestant theologian J. R. Wilson makes an enlightening comment: “God’s command to subdue and have dominion over the earth is given before the Fall, that is, when Adam and Eve were sinless and, therefore, not yet affected by the Fall, when humanity became sinful. Wilson adds: “We have to care for the earth because God loved it enough to send his Son to redeem it.”
A must-reading regarding the cosmic dimension of hope is Pope Francis’ acclaimed encyclical letter Laudato Si (2015), where he says that a through-away culture, a culture of consumerism are anti-creation. A point that ought to be underlined (usually underplayed or sidelined by some gurus of climate change) is the close connection there is between “the cry of the earth” and “the cry of the poor.”
St. Francis of Assisi is one of the best examples of an integral care and caring for our common home. He was “a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace” (LS’, no. 10).
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