One of the more depressing lines in the Bible, it seems to me, comes from the book of Job: “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope” (Job 7:6). Many of us have had times when we felt like Job, when life seemed bleak and we had a hard time believing that the future would be any better.
At such times, we most need the virtue of hope. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines hope in No. 1817 as “the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.”
Hope is a frequent theme in the Bible, but interestingly, Hebrew has no word that exactly corresponds to hope. The Old Testament most frequently expresses hope with words that mean “to expect” or “to trust and have confidence.”
This points us to the close relationship between hope and faith and love. St. Paul, in his famous passage in 1 Corinthians 13:13, links the three central virtues: “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” While we speak of them as separate virtues, they are linked. We are able to hope because we believe in God and God’s promises, and we believe in those promises because we are embraced in God’s love.
Sometimes hope appears in the Bible in a superficial sense: I hope to see you soon, or I hope to gain your favor. But most often, hope refers to a trust in God’s providence and love for us. We are urged to hope in God or in God’s word.
The psalms frequently express such hope: “Be strong and take heart, all who hope in the Lord” (31:25). “May your kindness, Lord, be upon us; as we put our hope in you” (33:22). “My soul longs for your salvation; I put my hope in your word” (119:81).
In the New Testament, hope is often linked to the Resurrection. This central event of history grounds our hope that God will be with us and sustain us no matter what we face, even death.
Hebrews 10:23 urges us, “Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.” As God was faithful to Jesus in raising him up from death, we trust that God will be faithful to the promise of new life made to us. The Letter to Titus (2:13) speaks of awaiting “the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ.”
Hope is a virtue that looks toward the ultimate outcome. We may have to endure many trials, but in the end God will triumph and bring us home. Holding onto that hope can give us strength to cope with the difficulties of the journey.
— Father Lawrence E. Mick
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Food for Thought
While our culture sometimes paints hope as part of the nature of unrealistically happy people, hope is a virtue that sustains and almost belongs to those who suffer, be it through the normal struggles of life or those who face circumstances beyond their control, such as wars or famine or any number of ailments.
Pope Francis spoke of this virtue to a crowd on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He called hope “the song of the people of God walking through history.”
“Hope is the virtue of those who, experiencing conflict — the struggle between life and death, good and evil — believe in the resurrection of Christ, in the victory of love,” he said.
Hope exists “where the body of Christ is suffering the passion,” the Holy Father said.
“Wherever the cross is, there is hope, always,” he added. “If there is no hope, we are not Christian. That is why I like to say: Do not allow yourselves to be robbed of hope. May we not be robbed of hope, because this strength is a grace, a gift from God that carries us forward with our eyes fixed on heaven.”
