The Gospel of Hope

INTRODUCTION

“Christians are called to overcome individualistic views of salvation and urged to become ministers of hope for the world.”

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Hope is certainly one of the greatest needs of our age, particularly felt at the beginning of a new year. Hopelessness is engulfing today’s society. Social problems grip entire populations; some countries spend more money in weapons and military personnel than in the health and education sectors; corruption and impunity spread and corrode cultural values; hunger, disease, poverty and human rights violations make people lose heart and deprive them of a future. As institutions lose credibility, people feel more vulnerable to all sorts of injustice and abuse. Often, there seems to be nothing left to hope for.

“What may we hope?” Pope Benedict XVI asks repeatedly in his second Encyclical Letter entitled Saved in Hope (“Spe Salvi”). The Pope stresses that without God – the true God! – the world remains without hope, for “man’s great, true hope which holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God – God who has loved us and who continues to love us ‘to the end,’ until all ‘is accomplished.’”

Hope is, therefore, closely connected to faith. It “is a gift that changes the life of those who receive it, as the experience of so many saints demonstrates,” commented the Pope in a subsequent occasion. “In substance, it consists in the knowledge of God, in the discovery of His heart as a good and merciful Father,” he added. Science, progress and structures contribute much to the good of humanity, but they are not able to redeem humanity, because “Man is redeemed by love, which renders social life good and beautiful.”

Christians are called to overcome individualistic views of salvation – which bring them to think only of the salvation of their souls and escape from their responsibility towards humanity – and urged to become ministers of hope for the world. The Pope says: “Hope, in a Christian sense, is always hope for others as well. It is an active hope in which we struggle to prevent things move towards the ‘perverse end.’”

How can we attain and be a light of hope for others? In the second part of the Letter – a less theological and more exhortative part – the Pontiff points out three ‘settings’ for learning and practicing hope: prayer, action and compassion and faith in the Last Judgment.

Prayer “is a school of hope.” “To pray” – the Pope comments – “is not to step outside history and withdraw to our private corner of happiness.” Through prayer our heart is enlarged and cleansed; we become capable of the great hope and able to welcome God and our fellow human beings as well.

“All serious and upright human conduct is hope in action,” says the Pontiff. “Hope gives us the courage to place ourselves on the side of good even in seemingly hopeless situations,” he adds. Further, the Pope challenges us to get radically involved in working for a brighter and more humane world by saying: “Truth and justice must stand above my comfort and physical well-being, or else my life itself becomes a lie.” It isn’t surprising, then, that suffering is unavoidable. But the “capacity to suffer depends on the type and extent of the hope that we bear within us and build upon,” adds the Pope.

Faith in eternal life spurs us to commit ourselves to the world’s salvation. By working for others’ salvation we are doing what is best for ours. After all, as the Pope said recently, “hope, like faith, is demonstrated in love.”

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