Ourlady03blogHope. It’s something I think people today (myself often included) lack. We live in uncertain times and it’s easy to look at the future negatively. It’s easy to read the news and observe the world around us and fall into despair. In Catholic thought, however, hope is not merely a positive feeling, but is a virtue.

The Catechism speaks beautifully of Christian Hope:

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. (1817).

Thus, our hope comes not from the stock market, the world stage, or our political leaders, but from placing our trust in Christ’s promises. And this strength to hope does not depend on our own power, but the grace of the Holy Spirit. In fact, hope is not merely a virtue, but what is called a theological virtue and is "infused," not something we can earn.

Hope is called theological because it not only leads us toward God, but also because Christian hope comes only from God. Hope, like faith and love, are infused by God into the souls of his children as a gift.

Gift and grace. What a beautiful way of approaching hope (and faith and love), especially in the midst of a world where suffering and strife are rampant. Too often we try to micromanage the world to acquire and create hope when in reality the source of our hope is God’s grace and the object is God and his beautiful Kingdom: all gift.

It’s like Antoine de St. Exupery said: "If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect
wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to
long for the endless immensity of the sea."