HOPE

Hope and Humanity

This Jubilee Year calls us to adopt an attitude of waiting. Human beings are beings who wait. Hope is one of the elements that brings vitality to our lives. Without hope, life would be incomprehensible. Hope precedes any ideological orientation we may have. To ask about hope is, ultimately, to ask about the value and meaning of human existence. (Kant’s three questions: What can I know? What should I do? What may I hope for?)
Laín Entralgo writes: “The first thing that must be affirmed about hope is the depth and universality of its presence in the human heart.”

We can observe hope in all areas of human life: in the purely biological (the expectation of healthy growth), in the intellectual and emotional (ranging from material things like food to spiritual realities like peace).

Seen in this way, hope is a consequence and immediate expression of the historicity of human beings, of their existential condition. In the past, this was referred to as the “state of journeying” (status viatoris) and the human being was called a pilgrim or viator. The opposing term is status comprehensoris: one who has already attained something is no longer a viator but a comprehensor. This is a fundamental term in Christian life. (The devil has lost the capacity to be a viator.)

This “being on the way” necessarily implies an orientation toward a goal to be attained, and, negatively, the fact that it has not yet been reached. It is a journey toward happiness. We remain in this condition until death, before which nothing is definitive. At that moment, what is revocable becomes irrevocable, so that both achieving the goal or failing to do so become permanent. In the meantime, this “not-yet” we live in is more than a “no,” but still less than a “yes”; thus, the appropriate human attitude is hope. One could almost say that not only is hope good for humanity, but human existence itself, as a creature, is structured under the sign of hope. (Idealism abandons the status viatoris; existentialist philosophy denies the journey—it sees a condition that is always the same.)

Hope is what moves us forward, what makes progress and human development possible. All discoveries, efforts, sacrifices, and ultimately, life choices are motivated by hope. This is why hope is a guiding dynamism. During Advent we read Isaiah 40: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.”

Hope as a Theological Virtue

Alongside this natural perspective, we must also highlight that hope is a theological virtue—that is, it relates to the divine reality. A person is not “in the right” simply because they hope for a happy old age, or that their children will mature, or because they hope for world peace or the avoidance of humanity’s self-destruction. There is nothing wrong with any of these hopes. But true hope—capital-H Hope—becomes a virtue only when it is directed toward a salvation that is not found within history or the world, but represents the fullness of human being.

German theologian Jürgen Moltmann rightly saw that Christian theology must be a theology of hope. We might also call it a theology of Advent.

Within the structure of the theological virtues, hope follows faith and precedes love. Without faith, hope is inconceivable: if we do not believe in or trust God—or any person—it is hard to hope in them or for anything from them. Love also results from hope, even if it’s the hope for personal gain or self-love (eros). True hope, however, is selfless and yields selfless love (charity). According to Romans 5:5, hope is grounded in love, which believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

Hope in the Bible

The Greeks acknowledged hope, but they were wary of its uncertainty: it could be both beneficial or disastrous. Their skepticism and distrust limited them. They held sound judgment (phronesis) as the true guiding principle.

In contrast, biblical hope already bears a positive tone: it is hope for good and for salvation, and closely resembles the concept of trust. In the Old Testament, the life of the devout person is fundamentally based on hope, not only in difficult times. Especially in the Psalms, we see how people know themselves to be dependent on God: their future is not in their own hands. Psalm 37 says: “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him; commit your way to the Lord.” And Psalm 40: “Blessed is the one who puts their trust in the Lord.” Job says: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” For the Israelites, both present and future find their foundation in God; they become insecure when humans attempt to take control of them. There is false hope when one places trust not in God but in what one possesses: wealth, power, or religious status.

Israel’s hope is also communal (a religious community’s hope) (Henri de Lubac: The Social Dimension of Dogma). Israel hopes that God will act in this world. It is a promise of faithfulness. Gradually, hope for momentary aid transforms into eschatological hope that will bring an end to all need.

In the New Testament, it is especially St. Paul who speaks to us about hope. Christian hope is personified in Jesus Christ himself. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). (The three comings of Christ.) (The Church’s prayers always end in hope with the words: “Through Christ our Lord.”) “We are the body of that head in which what we hope for has already been fully realized” (St. Augustine). Salvation is already present, though from another perspective, it is still pending. This is the in-between time. Hope means waiting for what God will bring to completion in Jesus Christ, which goes beyond this life: it is an eschatological gift. The Incarnation is the foundation of this future, because we know God has already been with us. The same Spirit who made the Incarnation possible, fulfilling all expectations, is the one who gives us hope to fulfill our own. The Spirit is the one who sustains the unity of hope through the ages.

Christian faith offers us salvation in the sense that it gives us hope—a trustworthy hope by which we can face the present. The present, even if burdensome, can be endured and accepted because it leads to a goal, and we can be sure of that goal. It is a goal so great that it justifies the effort of the journey.

Elements of Hope

Hope involves three characteristics: waiting, expectation for the future, and trust.

1. Waiting is always difficult. We struggle to wait because we are constantly restless. Waiting requires a calm that reveals emptiness—and that scares us. Waiting implies depending not on ourselves, but on another’s timing. It means waiting for someone, putting ourselves, in a sense, into another’s hands. Could we endure an eternal wait? What is clear is that our ultimate hope is eternal life. (Difficult concept: life as we know it—hard—and eternal—never-ending.) Eternal life is life in its fullest sense, overflowing with joy.
2. Expectation is about what is to come (like an ad campaign: “Only two days left!”). Something big that excites us. Expectation makes us move, makes us begin the journey. Here curiosity plays a vital role. Aristotle called it the mother of philosophy and science. But expectation can also lead to disappointment: it wasn’t that great after all. False expectations can hurt others and lead to emotional withdrawal.
3. Trust enables the Christian to know that “hope does not disappoint” (Rom. 5:5). Not being deceived in life is essential (an atheist argument against Christianity). We know nothing in this world is definitive, but there is a firm and positive certainty: Christmas. The Final Judgment is a source of hope, because we know we are in the hands of the One who has saved us.

Characteristics of Hope

1. Youthfulness: Hope is always young because God is younger than all. It is renewal. Throughout life, people have different hopes depending on their stage of life. Sometimes one hope seems to fill everything (love, a career), but when it doesn’t come true, we see it wasn’t everything. It becomes clear we need a hope that goes beyond. We need both small and great hopes that keep us moving forward each day. But without the great hope that surpasses all others, the rest are not enough. Natural hope often fades with age, when there’s more past than future. Supernatural hope, on the other hand, brings deeper youthfulness and a form of old age that has endless future ahead. St. Paul said: “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).
2. Patience: Patience means knowing how to wait. According to the Old Testament, the hope of the devout person involves remaining still and waiting on God: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Is. 30:15). Patience means giving things time. Good things take time and effort; nothing grows without time and care. Patience is tied to dedication, tenderness, and love in everything we do. Patience is also a characteristic of God, who is patient with us. As He is patient with us, so should we be with others.
3. Fear of the Lord: One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It’s sometimes said that fear is unworthy of a human being (Stoics, certain educational models). In Job, we hear it negatively: “He has come to fear nothing.” Proverbs say: “The wise fear and turn away from evil.” Fear is not just respect or reverence. It’s the fear of possibly separating from God through our own fault—a real possibility; a fear that includes natural dread before annihilation, before facing nothingness, because all was made from nothing. (Think of the vertigo of a pole vaulter.) Our fear before God is filial, not the fear of servants punished by wrath. The angel says to Mary: “Do not be afraid.” The mystery of Christmas is wrapped in this atmosphere of fear that guarantees the authenticity of hope. The Psalm says: “Those who fear the Lord hope in him.”

The Absence of Hope

There are two ways hope is lost—both deny the “being on the way” that characterizes human existence:

1. Presumption: the unnatural anticipation of the end. (Von Balthasar calls sin a premature anticipation of the hour.) It leads to impropriety and immaturity. We want certainty so badly that we fall into moralism, as if everything depends on our strength (Pelagianism). St. Augustine called this “perverse security.” Or, the opposite: thinking God will save us no matter what, without our free cooperation (some Protestant views).
2. Despair: also anticipates the end, but in terms of a failure to reach it. It makes us decrepit. When we speak of despair today, we often mean a psychological state we fall into. But it’s not just something that happens to us—it is something we choose, and it has varying degrees of depth. To despair is to be torn apart, to contradict oneself, to lose heart. In its extreme, it is the denial of salvation and eternal life. The one who despairs insists there is no path to Christ. Acedia or spiritual sloth contains its seed in the question: “What’s the point?” This view leads to sad paralysis, to becoming a wandering soul: the one who despairs does not want to be themselves. Despair is not the gravest sin, but perhaps the most dangerous—because it causes us to drift. Ultimately, it means closing the door of our lives; it is a sin against the Spirit.

Places to Learn and Practice Hope

Prayer is the best school of hope. It is always a language of hope and an exercise of desire. When I can no longer speak to anyone or call on anyone, I can still speak to God. If we don’t expect anything, why pray? Through prayer, we keep the world open to God. That’s why the Gospel says, “Pray always and never lose heart.”

Action and suffering are also moments of hope. Hope appears in all its radicalism in the witness of martyrdom. The martyr hopes not for earthly salvation, but for eternal life. Yet they do not threaten God’s creation, and remain serene even in catastrophe. Without reaching martyrdom, we can offer our daily sufferings—those small, nagging pains—as meaningful. Reparation is the greatest act of hope our charisms ask of us.

To cultivate hope is something always timely and necessary. The Christian message is not merely “informative,” but “performative”: it is not just a communication of knowable things but a communication that brings change and transforms life. Whoever has hope lives differently! (Think of Josephine Bakhita or Erich Fromm: do everything as if it were your last act.) We must not be defeated by despair, or by distrust in God and humanity. God has always believed that humanity has a future, that it can and must keep going. If Jesus brought anything to the world, it was hope—the certainty that God has not abandoned us, and that He cares for us.