​Session II Theological Virtue of Hope

Song for Reflection: Be Thou My Vision
As alluded to in the introduction, the theological virtue of hope is a gift from God, rather than simply the natural passion of hope which we share with the animals (St. Thomas Aquinas) - like hoping it doesn’t rain or that we have a good trip…
 
According to St. Thomas, hope strives toward something that is possible, namely eternal life. 

God is both the good we hope to attain - and - the one by whose grace we hope to attain our end.
 
Christian hope isn’t like hoping to win the lottery (against extreme odds) 
Allow me to draw from paragraphs 1813 and 1817 through 21 of the Catechism.
Here, we read that the theological virtues:

• allow us to participate in the divine nature
• related directly to God
• enable us to live in relationship with the Trinity.

And, hope, in particular:

• Urges us to desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life,
• relying on Christ's promises and the grace of the Holy Spirit.
• is tied to the Beatitudes and the promises of God,
• is a weapon in the struggle for salvation.

In preparing this retreat, I thought about my experience working the night shift.  I had been asked to work unexpectedly.  After finishing my work of cleaning and probably laundry, I was waiting in the hall for the nurse to come so I could go sleep.  The words of Psalm 130 were fresh in my mind since we had been praying it every evening for our deceased Sister. 
 
I was quite tired since I hadn’t slept for nearly 24 hours.  I could really relate to this passage and thought: “So this is how the watchmen referred to in the psalm felt.  “My soul is waiting for the Lord, I count on His word.  My soul is longing for the Lord, more than watchmen for daybreak.  Let the watchman count on daybreak and Israel on the Lord.”
 
We see a beautiful example of this hoping in the Lord in the Carmelite nuns at Compiègne who were guillotined during the reign of terror following the French revolution.  They knew their death was imminent and prayed for a year, seeking the grace they would need and offering themselves for the salvation of France.
 
These sixteen nuns, one by one, went to their death singing the Veni Creator Spiritus.  Each asked permission to die from their superior and bravely went, youngest to oldest.
 
Interestingly , the revolutionary government fell ten days after their execution.
 
Pope Benedict, in his document, Spe Salve and his treatise on Virtues, teaches us a lot about hope.  Hope allows us to face our current circumstances in view of our goal; heaven is our goal.
 
The Catechism shares that hope opens up our hearts in expectation of eternal beatitude (aka heaven) (par. 1818) .
 
These are strong words – expectation of heaven!
 
I’d like to share a lovely quote from St. Teresa of Avila:
“Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. Dream that the more you struggle,  the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end” 
 
In the past several years, I’ve walked with a couple of people close toward death – my dad and Sr. Rebecca.  Hope has been a game changer
In this process, the analogy has come to mind that having a loved one die is like saying “See you later” rather than “Goodbye” – we have this hope.
 
Meanwhile, along our journey, as Catholics, we want to steer clear of the sins against hope, namely, despair and presumption.
Despair:

• a person stops hoping for salvation, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is faithful to his promises - & to his mercy. 

Presumption:

• Two kinds:

Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help)

• or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).

 
Sometimes, I’ve heard people joking flippantly about confession, saying something like, “Let’s go steal some apples off that tree…it’ll be okay because I’m going to confession this afternoon.”  Even though they are kidding, I cringe interiorly because this is not the response of gratitude and love we should give to God for his goodness.  We should not be presumptuous. 
 
As I wrap up this segment on hope as a theological virtue, I’d like to share a story from my childhood. 
 
It was Christmas Eve, and “Santa” (possibly one of my uncles) was visiting.  He had been digging in his sack, pulling out gifts for all the cousins.  Santa felt his sack and it seemed empty, but my brother Dave hadn’t got a gift yet.  With his big brown eyes, he looked earnestly at the man in a red suit and called out, “Me good, Santa; me good!” 
 
What an illustration of our topic of hope! We know God has good things in store for us!