387. What is hope? (part 1)
(Comp 387) Hope is the theological virtue by which we
desire and await from God eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in
Christ's promises and relying on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit to
merit it and to persevere to the end of our earthly life.
“In brief”
(CCC 1843)
By hope we desire, and with steadfast trust await from God, eternal life and
the graces to merit it.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 1817)
Hope is 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. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for
he who promised is faithful" (Heb 10:23). "The Holy Spirit… he poured
out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be
justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life" (Titus
3:6-7).
Reflection
(CCC 1818)
The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed
in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities
and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man
from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up
his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is
preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity. (CCC
1819) Christian hope takes up and fulfills the hope
of the chosen people which has its origin and model in the hope of Abraham, who was blessed abundantly by the promises of God
fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by the test of the sacrifice (Cf. Gen
17:4-8; 22:1-18). "Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the
father of many nations" (Rom 4:18). [IT CONTINUES]
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