Hope, it’s what gives our Faith meaning. With the virtue of Hope, we believe that we will be in the bliss of Heaven with God when we die. Hope strengthens us through trials, making us understand that the evils of this world are temporary. Compared to the vast eternity that is our next life, this temporary isn’t even a split second, and even if we suffer this entire life, that suffering is negligable to the joy that is promised to us in the Kingdom of God. This is the virtue that gives martyrs strength. What’s a little death compared to eternal life?
What is Hope?
Most people hope for things of this world throughout their day. They may hope their team wins the game, hope for another person to like them back, hope for a raise or promotion, or any number of other things. These are natural hopes. This type of hope can be trained through our natural means. This is nice to have, but we need more as Christians.
The theological virtue of hope is very different from our natural hopes. This type of hope is imparted to us from God, and the end of this virtue is God. He gives us this virtue so that we can hope in His salvation, His kingdom. God knows that life in the natural world is full of temptations, fears, discouragement, and other distractions. He wants us to find our way to Him, so He gives us the virtue of hope. We need hope to seek Him in this crazy world. This grace gives us confidence in God’s omnipotent power and mercy, and hope allows us to elevate our minds and hearts to God as we ponder the gift of eternal life that He will give us. Hope helps us understand that we want to be with God and helps us trust Him to lead us there.
Why Should We Get More Hope?
Hope can serve as a compass, always pointing our mind toward God and the Kingdom of Heaven. We live in a world where hope is woefully absent. People put too much stock in the things of this world. Politics become the standard of ethics rather than religion. Stepping over others to get what you want has become a virtue to our world. “Pleasure at all costs” is the motto of the hopeless. When you have no hope in Heaven, why not enjoy this life as much as you can. The problem is, this makes people really miserable. They don’t even notice how miserable they are! A worldly person bounces from pleasure to pleasure with no joy in their lives.
This is why we need more hope. We need to fight against this enticing and deceptive misery. Hope is a compass that leads us to God in a world of people being thrown about in a maelstrom. While others are dashed against rock after rock, we sail through this storm because of our hope. The world tries to tell you to define for yourself what you are made for. But we know what we are made for, to be with God in Heaven!
So having more hope will help us consistenly reject this message from the world. This idea that we need to seek our own happiness or make our own way, is a lie from the enemy. More hope allows us to see more clearly and seek God with all our heart. If we truly believe in God, we should make everything about Him, and hope helps us do that. Why should we seek a worldly heaven, that is not real, when we have a real and true Heaven promised to us by Jesus Himself?
Sins Against Hope
The principal sins against hope are presumption and despair. They are both ends of a pendulum, where someone has too much unwarranted hope, or someone has no hope whatsoever. Both of these sins seem to be rooted in pride, so humility is often the best weapon against them.
Presumption
Presumption is when someone presumes that they are saved no matter what. It’s an overabundance of hope when there is nothing to warrant that hope. They do trust in God’s mercy but do nothing to attain it. In fact, people who presume often continue in sin or make light of sin, because of their assumption that they will not have to answer for it. A person who is wrapped up in presumption will either delay going to confession or not go at all when they are in a state of mortal sin.
We see presumption all around us today. There’s a common saying among presumptuous people that “God would just want us to be happy.” And they use this mantra to continue with sins and not make any effort to change. God does want you to be happy, which is why He wants you to be good and avoid sins, so that you can be with Him. God’s mercy is endless, but He is also filled with justice. You can’t expect to keep committing crimes against God and others, with no repentance, and to not face justice.
Despair
Despair can be described as a total lack of hope, despite God’s promises. Someone who is in the midst of despair will refuse to belief they can make it to heaven. They may believe that their sins cannot be forgiven, that heaven is for other people, or that God is not merciful. Despair is truly diabolical in nature, because the person rejects one of the most fundamental acts of love God shows us, which is His mercy.
This is also fairly common in our society, though not nearly as common as presumption. It stems from a spiritual sloth, in which the person places more importance on worldly and physical goods rather than spiritual goods. Common behaviors of someone who deals with this is trying to collect as much good in this world as they can, saying blasphemus and hateful things toward God, believing that they were made for hell, frequent jokes about going to hell, and other things that either make light of hell or make it seem that they are certainly going to hell.
How To Get More Hope
Hope is so important! We can all agree that as Christians hope is vital to growing toward Christ. But how do we grow in our hope, so we can grow more toward God? There are several ways we can do this.
Prayer
Prayer is recommended to men, that by it they may obtain from God what they hope to secure from Him.
St Thomas Aquinas
The first and most obvious thing we can do to grow more in hope is to pray for it. Since it is a gift from God, we should ask for more of it from God. The thing is, we also need to trust that He will give us what we ask for. Hope grows as God gives it to us, but only if we use it and accept it. If we ask for more hope, and then deny that God would give it to us or that He can, we’re denying the beautiful gift He’s trying to give us in that moment. We need to trust God in everything we pray for. Sure we might not get what we pray for in that moment, but God wants us to be with Him, and will give us the means to do so. Trust in God, and your hope will grow by leaps and bounds.
Avoiding Sin
Sin separates us from God. Every venial sin is a step away from Him. Every mortal sin is slamming a door in His face, separating us from Him in a way that changes us. To help us in avoiding sin, the Holy Spirit gives us a gift, fear of the Lord.
When we are committing venial sins, we are still in a state of grace, but we are still refusing to bring our minds and hearts to God. This willful separation is harmful to our virtue of hope, because we are willfully rejecting what God promises us.
This is even worse when we commit mortal sin, and are in a state of sin. We have no hope for Heaven in this state, because when we place ourselves in a state of sin, we completely reject God. When we reject God in this way, we reject the hope He freely gives to us. To be in a state of sin is to freely reject Heaven, and to be in that state can be horrible. The absence of hope for Heaven makes people so miserable, because people know what awaits them if they die in this state. If you are in a state of mortal sin, you NEED to go to confession ASAP!
Do Good Works
Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: “Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.”
Matthew 25:34-36
The inverse of avoiding sin is to do good works. This can grow the virtue of hope within us. We can clearly see in the Gospel of Matthew that good works and charity are very important to God. It brings us closer to Him and we need to do good to make it to Heaven, because as Jesus says shortly after this passage,
And in response, the King shall say to them, “Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.”
Matthew 25:40
So doing good is required to make it to Heaven, and hope is seeking Heaven, so when we do good things, we are increasing our hope because we are doing what God asked us to do to go to Heaven. The closer we are to God, the more hope we have, and the more we do good for the others, the closer we are to God.
There is a pitfall many people fall into with this however. It’s vitally important that you do not adopt a mindset that says that you can earn your way to Heaven. Faith in Christ is absolutely required, and our salvation was earned for us by Christ. Works are required by us to accept that salvation, because if we refuse to do good we are refusing to help Christ in other people. So remember that Catholics are not a works only religion, we need both Faith and Works. No matter how many good works you do, if you are in a state of sin or do not have a relationship with God, you will still not make it to Heaven.
Reading Scripture
It would also help to actually know what God promises us and how to make it to Heaven. Luckily this is all throughout scripture. This is especially true in the Gospels, but can also be found other books. There are certainly many things to learn from the Bible. The Bible really shows how much God loves us, and how much He wants us to be with Him in Heaven. So start reading more regularly. If you’re new, start with one of the Gospels and keep going. St Paul’s letters are also fantastic.
Concluding Words
So with this information of the Theological Virtue of Hope, you now know how vital it is that we have it. Hope is needed by us as Christians to make it through this tumultuous world. It keeps our eyes on the prize, eternal life with Our Lord. We cannot lose sight of Heaven and the promises Christ gave us. We need to hope for these things, because otherwise we will not make it through the temptations of the world. Hope directs us toward God, so that when we seek Him, we avoid those things that keep us from Him.
So when you are faced with the dreariness and darkness of this world, remember what Christ promised us. When you are tired and beaten down by the attacks of the devil, remind yourself what you are called for. The gloomy and dark world may feel oppressive, but the hope of Heaven gives us strength and lightens our hearts!