Bible Question:
What is "Hope"? That is to say, how should a Christian define hope? Of course our hope is found IN Christ. But I'm speaking of this way us Christians have of making God into our own personal Genie - wishing for something and expecting Him to make it come true. Where is the line between being in God's will and hoping for something specific that you know he wants for us (like a spouse or a home), and manipulating God with our prayers? Hebrews 11 says Faith is the substance of "things hoped for"... and Proverbs says "Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life". 1 Corinithians 13 talks of hope, groups it with faith and love - these three things remain: faith, hope and love. I know what faith is, I know what love looks like. But what is a good Christian definition of hope? Things hoped for, makes me think we are supposed to hope for things, of course always in God's will, but what about specifics? |
Bible Answer: "II. THE THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES 1812 The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which adapt man's faculties for participation in the divine nature:[76] for the theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object. 1813 The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.[77] Hope 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."[84] "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."[85] 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. 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.[86] "Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the father of many nations."[87] 1820 Christian hope unfolds from the beginning of Jesus' preaching in the proclamation of the beatitudes. The beatitudes raise our hope toward heaven as the new Promised Land; they trace the path that leads through the trials that await the disciples of Jesus. But through the merits of Jesus Christ and of his Passion, God keeps us in the "hope that does not disappoint."[88] Hope is the "sure and steadfast anchor of the soul . . . that enters . . . where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf."[89] Hope is also a weapon that protects us in the struggle of salvation: "Let us . . . put on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of salvation."[90] It affords us joy even under trial: "Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation."[91] Hope is expressed and nourished in prayer, especially in the Our Father, the summary of everything that hope leads us to desire. 1821 We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will.[92] In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere "to the end"[93] and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the Church prays for "all men to be saved."[94] She longs to be united with Christ, her Bridegroom, in the glory of heaven: 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.[95] 76 Cf. 2 Pet 1:4. 77 Cf. 1 Cor 13:13. 84 Heb 10:23. 85 Titus 3:6-7. 86 Cf. Gen 17:4-8; 22:1-18. 87 Rom 4:18. 88 Rom 5:5. 89 Heb 6:19-20. 90 1 Thess 5:8. 91 Rom 12:12. 92 Cf. Rom 8:28-30; Mt 7:21. 93 Mt 10:22; cf. Council of Trent DS 1541. 94 1 Tim 2:4. 95 St. Teresa of Avila, Excl. 15:3. " The Catechism of the Catholic Church |