In this Jubilee Year with its theme of hope, a hope that does not disappoint, citing St Paul’s Letter to the Romans (5:5), it is right and fitting that we should reflect on the virtue of hope, to appreciate its place in our human and Christian experience. Also, it is helpful to focus on the theme at the beginning of each year when we are meant to be looking forward to something better than we experienced in the preceding twelve months.
My first impression of this quality suggests a link to the characteristic of optimism which is built into our human nature, allowing us to move forward in a positive way from experiences of failure and tragedy, which can tend to fuel a response of pessimism and gloom in our way through life. This type of hope is typically impersonal, based on an experience of life as a series of historical cycles. In so many walks of life, negative realities last for a while only to be replaced by positive ones: as day follows night, spring follows winter, calm follows storms, health follows sickness, economic booms follow busts, peace after war, and so on. The optimist is a glass half-full kind of person as opposed to the pessimist’s glass half-empty. The optimist is likely to look out for any sign of “light at the end of the tunnel.” Wait long enough and things will inevitably get better. It is a type of optimism which Pope Francis calls “naïve,” lacking in depth and not leading to a final resolution of life’s tragedies; after all, the other side of the coin is that the good times will inevitably lead to bad times, light replaced by darkness, etc.
A second impression, however, is I believe, more promising because it is personal, depending on our relationships to our fellow human beings and the free commitments we can make to each other. This type of hope will also draw us closer to the religious meaning of this key quality of human being.
Take, for example, the social institution (and sacrament) of Marriage, where explicit mutual promises are exchanged by the couple, binding them in a life-long commitment. Whether we interpret this in secular or sacred terms, such promises are, ideally, the basis of a hope that these two people will practise love through the ups and downs of their married life, in sickness and health, until death separates them. The Sacrament of Matrimony is then pre-eminently a sacrament of hope, as husband and wife place their trust in each other and in God’s grace to ground their expectations for their common future.
No wonder that, in both Old and New Testaments scriptures, marriage has featured as an image of the covenant relationship between God and his people. God pledges to be faithful to his chosen bride, even though the Israelites have serious problems keeping their side of the bargain. (see Isaiah 54:5; Hosea 2:19)
In Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (5:22-3), prohibition of divorce finds a Christological and Ecclesiological rationale as far as the Church is portrayed as the bride of Christ, a husband who is certain to remain faithful.
Notice how the language of covenant, which is a type of contract, is based on the notion of making (and keeping) promises. We place our hope in the promises others make to us, many of which are implicit rather than explicit. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, friends, do not usually make formal promises to care for each other, yet it is generally understood that these relationships are binding.
Jesus, in his ministry, rarely uses the language of promising explicitly, but so much of his interaction with people and of what he says involves implicit promises. Think of some examples such as: To Peter, “You are the rock on which I will build my Church”(Mt 16:18), to the Good Thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise”(Lk.23:43), to each one of us, “Come to me you who are heavily burdened and I will give you rest”(Mt.11:28-30) Even the Beatitudes contain implicit promises, e.g. “Blessed are the pure of heart, they shall see God”(Mt.5:8). In this way, hope based on the promises of others is central to the whole moral life such that in a world where promises are easily broken, hope will be in short supply and despair will fill the vacuum.
Implicit promises are fundamental when we humans agree to a code of morality, whether it consists of rules or virtues, rights, or responsibilities. One way of referring to this notion in social and political theory is to speak of a “social contract,” implying that social beings make implicit promises to limit their personal freedom for the sake of a common security, backed up by the governing power. In Christianity, there is a love commandment but also a love virtue. If we take these seriously, then it must be the case that we see ourselves as promising to love God and His creation. And that kind of promising is the basis of so much of our hope for a better world, for the coming of the Kingdom, when the will of God “will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt.6:10)
Finally, we might note that the language of promise is closely allied to the idea of potential, as when we speak of a “promising” student or artist or athlete. We may recognise promise in a child which calls out for support and encouragement. And what a pity when such promise is not appreciated, or worse, suppressed! Surely it is the hope of every parent, teacher or anyone who has care for the upcoming generation, that such promise should be fulfilled. Is there not an implicit promise in such relationships to bring such promise to fruition? Might we not see that commitment as a harmonious combination of faith and love as well as hope?
Nor let us forget that in our Christian tradition hope is a theological virtue, i.e. a virtue which has God has its object. We place our hope in God alone, in his guaranteed promises. But there is a secondary sense in which we can invert that order and suggest, if it’s not too daring, that God has placed his hopes in us! He sees greater promise in us than we can ever see for ourselves in this limited existence, for he has destined each one of us to be united with Him in an eternity of blissful love. As St Paul puts it, “Faith, Hope and Love last, but the greatest of these is Love.” (ICor.13:13)
Let us not disappoint God’s hope in us.
Kieran ofm