SINS AGAINST HOPE (# 6)

The basic points of our reflection on Christian hope ought to include a note on the sins against hope. What is sin?

Sin is moral evil, a bad human act, a failure in human self-realization, undue attachment to things and consequent detachment from God. Sins may rule our life and make us like slaves (Rom 3:9; 7:14). Indeed, “Everyone who commits a sin is a slave of sin” (Jn 8:34). Sin, grave sin is bad use of freedom. St. Augustine tells us in his Confessions that when he was in sin – when as a young man lived a loose life –, he had “the freedom of a run-away slave.” Sin -grave sin- is a betrayal of love that disrupts our relationship with God, with ourselves, with others and with nature (Vatican II, GS 13). From the sin of Adam and Eve, sin presents itself as promise, but it is no more than an illusion and a lie (A. Peteiro).

The definition of sin applies formally to mortal or grave sins, that is, the sins which cut off our graceful and loving relationship with God and with one another. Venial sins do not cut us off from divine grace and love, but they are also sins that diminish the joy and fire of following Jesus, and although light sins, they are bad company on our hopeful journey of life; they may even lead us to grave sins. There are different kinds of sins regarding their distinct matter, including the sins against the virtues. What are the sins against the Christian virtue of hope?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, when presenting the first commandment, “you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve,” speaks briefly of the three theological virtues. Regarding hope, CCC describes briefly the definition of hope and the main possible sins against hope, namely, despair and presumption (CCC, 2091-2092).

Despair is a sin against hope by defect.  It proceeds from lust and laziness (cf. STh, II-II, 20, 4). Despair is a very grave sin: “Your hurt is incurable; your wound is grievous” (Jer 30:12). It is described as anticipated failure, as inward death, as a voluntary renunciation of eternal beatitude deemed unattainable, as “the reverse of a masked pride.” It is against God’s mercy. Despair is a most dangerous sin. “To commit sin is death of the soul; but to despair is to descend to hell” (A. Royo Marin). It is not easy to commit a sin of perfect despair. It is not that hard, however, to commit sins of imperfect despair, such as, abandoning spiritual practices and prayer, discouragement, anxiety. From the part of God, all sins are forgivable; from the part of man, nevertheless, some sins may seem - but are not - unforgivable, for instance, the sin of abortion for some mothers who committed it.  

Presumption is a sin against hope by excess. It is, St. Thomas observes, lack of temperance and of moderation in hoping. It is opposed to magnanimity, which moderates hope. Presumption is described as “anticipated fulfillment,” as “an excessive confidence to obtaining the salvation of the soul by means not sanctioned by God.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church avers that a person can be sinfully presumptuous if he thinks that he can be saved by his own powers, or if she misunderstands God’s mercy by “hoping to attain his forgiveness without conversion, and glory without merit (CCC, 1092). Although the sin of perfect presumption is not easy to commit, it is not hard to sin against hope by trusting excessively in our powers to do good or in God’s infinite mercy – even without repentance.

Hope is the virtue of the pilgrim. It happens that on the way to encounter God in heaven, there will be obstacles and difficulties: the path of the pilgrim of hope is at times bumpy and at times without visible light. These hazards require from the pilgrim patience. Hence, impatience is another sin against hope. The pilgrim walks with others, who are different from him and ask for respect and tolerance (J. R. Flecha). Attachment to possessions, to other things is a sign of weakness of hope. Writes Thomas Merton: Hope is proportionate to detachment. To be attached much to oneself - to our “fat ego”  -is a sign that our vision is not oriented to the future. Hope is open to the future – to God, to eternal life (cf. Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi).  

Theological hope may be denied by intra-mundane utopias or the ideology of progress. Progress is ambivalent (cf. Benedict XVI, CV). Authentic human progress believes in integral progress - for one and for all - and is open to transcendence (cf. Paul VI, PP). Writes theologian José Román Flecha: Material progress needs moral progress and this demands spiritual progress (La esperanza).

What are some other sins against hope?  J. Moltmann believes that the sin that threatens most the believer is not the evil he does, but the good he does not do. It is not his misdeeds, but his omissions. These accuse him of lack of hope.

Another sin against hope today is loneliness: the undesired solitude of the Christian who is alone and lonely. In this sense, as theologian Felicísimo Martínez writes, loneliness and lack of hope are twin sisters. Absolute solitude is like hell. For his part, Segundo Galilea considers as sins some current superstitions against hope, including religious, scientific and ideological superstitions.

In his book The Virtues of the Vigilant Christian, Carlo Maria Martini, quoting Heinrich Schlier, points out some of the signs of lack of hope today. These are, among others, the following: giving in to ill humor, impatience, uneasiness, bitterness; every failure in calmness, excessive talking in empty speeches, being scattered in a multiplicity of things, lack of stability in the decisions of life. Cardinal Martini mentions others: lack of clarity, lack of objectivity, incoherence, and dishonesty.

Another sin against hope is acedia or spiritual sadness. Acedia is a sin against hope: it is sadness, passivity (cf. STh II-II, 20, 4). Sadness was considered by some hermits and Fathers as the eighth capital sin. We may add another sin against hope: discarding the possibility of becoming holy. We are inclined to say: “Holiness is for extraordinary souls and I am not one of them.” Wrong: God calls us all to holiness, and He will never leave us, but we have to cooperate - with his grace and love - to do his will.

 In closing, let us quote theologian B. Haring: “Is our world today aware of one of the most dangerous sins against hope? It is the over commitment to activity, to success, to progress and development, while cutting off the fountains of hope: contemplation, prayer, repose before God. Those who will not bother to keep the wellspring of creative liberty and fidelity clean and strong are sinning against their own hope and the hope of the world” (Free and Faithful in Christ, II).  (FGB)

 

SOME PROPERTIES OF CHRISTIAN HOPE (# 5)

 

The notes that help us unveil the nature of Christian hope are many. For our part, we shall develop three significant properties of hope, namely, certain hope, patient hope and prayerful hope.

 

HOPE IS CERTAIN   

Certitude is an essential property of Christian hope. Hope is faithful trust in God, and therefore unconditionally certain. Why? Because God’s merciful omnipotence (main motive of our hope) will not fail us! “I have not lost confidence, because I know who it is that I have put my trust in, and I have no doubt at all that he is able to take care of all that I have entrusted to him until that Day” (2 Tim 1:12; cf. Rom 5:5). Thus, the biblical definition of Christian hope: “The certain expectation of eternal life and of the opportune means to attain it – an expectation founded on the promises, the fidelity, the love and the power of God” (C. Spicq). Certainly, Christian hope “does not deceit or disappoint because it is grounded on the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love” (Pope Francis, Bull of Convocation Jubilee Year 2025, Spes non confundit).

There is certitude in our hope, but there is also fear! The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines hope as “the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God’s love and of incurring punishment” (CCC  2090).

Can we pilgrims be sure of ourselves? Saint Albert the Great asked himself when he was already old and close to heaven: Nunquid durabo? Will I endure until the end? We hope then with sure hope in God (I Pet 1:3) as well as with certain fear (Phil 2:13), with certain insecurity “The man who thinks he is safe must be careful that he does not fall” (1 Cor 10:12).

Weakness, vulnerability, sinfulness, uncertainty are realities of the hope of the pilgrim. Thus, with certitude, fear is a characteristic of theological hope. The attainment of the object of hope – of eternal life – is difficult, that is arduum. Truly, we depend on God and on the hope of our brothers and sisters in the faith, but we also depend on ourselves: God wants and treasures our cooperation; God gave us freedom.

Will I be saved? Will you be saved? We are sure - certain - of God’s merciful grace and love, but we are not sure of our cooperation with God: the perseverance of our will until the end. A loving hope does not allow fear to dominate us. Saint John of the Cross advises us: “Fear God with confidence.”

 

&nbsp&nbspHOPE IS PATIENT

The first Christians were impatient. Why? It would seem that they did not understand then that the Lord was delaying his Final Coming! With patience, they learned to hope as believers in Christ who came and is to come!

&nbspIn our age, the main problem is not, perhaps, impatience for the final coming of the Lord, but passive resignation or just not expecting eagerly the Coming of the Lord. It seems that many of us Christians want to delay Jesus’ coming. After all, we are too busy, perhaps, and not hungry or just somewhere else. &nbsp

&nbspChristian hope is patient (Heb 11:30; Rom 5:3-5; I Th 1:3; Jm 1:2-4, 11). Our faith asks from us to be hopefully patient facing suffering. Suffering comes in many ways: as a personal failure, the chronic illness of a child, the death of a loved one; as injustice, violence, and destruction; as our own death. Pain may come at different times in our pilgrimage.  

The great witnesses and models of patient, persevering and joyful hope are those who suffered much, like Job, Jeremiah, St. Paul, the martyrs, St. John of the Cross, Therese of the Child Jesus, the innocent victims of hatred, injustice and violence. Above all, Christ, the suffering servant, who went to his crucifixion meekly, serenely, and patiently – hopefully

The crucified Lord invites us and empowers us to accept suffering and to be sensitive to the sufferings of others. Our suffering may become redemptive suffering, if patiently bore and joined to the sufferings of Christ, our Redeemer (I Pet 2:21). Thus, our “crucified hope” (J. Moltmann) may be turned into a resurrection hope: I consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us (Rom 8:18).

Christians “follow the poor Christ, the humble and cross-bearing Christ, in order to be made worthy of being partakers in his glory” (LG, 41.

&nbspIn theological perspective, patience is an important moral virtue, or good habit\ that enables us to bear the physical or moral or spiritual hardships of life with tranquility, for the sake of greater goods and of the greatest good – eternal life. Patience is a needed virtue to control or tame impatience, anger, and anxiety. Indeed, patience attains all things (St. Teresa of Avila).

Perseverance accompanies patience: hope is patient and persevering. It is, indeed, necessary to persevere until the end (Mt 10:22). The virtue of perseverance aids patient hope to be constantly patient up to the end.

&nbspHope is humble and joyful. The Christian marches through life in spe gaudentes – joyful in hope (Rom 12:12). Happiness is not the opposite of joy: “It makes me happy to suffer for you” (Col 1:24). Hope is an essential ingredient of happiness in this life, and joy is a note of hope: “You have hope, this will make you cheerful” (Rom 12:12). The root of the hope of happiness is humility. Jesus said that “if we do not become like children, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18:3). The hope of happiness is rooted in humility, that is, in being like children: being “little” was the root of the glorification of Christ (Phil 2:2-11), and is the ground of prayer.

 

&nbsp&nbspHOPE IS PRAYERFUL

Prayer is essentially linked to hope: “Spes orat”- Hope prays. Hope is prayerful! Most of our prayers in the Holy Mass and in the Divine Office ask God to help us attain heaven “Commit to the Lord your way, trust in him, and he will act” (Ps 37:5). The heart of our prayer - personal and communitarian - is the Holy Eucharist as Word and Sacrament. The Holy Eucharist is “the fount and apex of the whole Christian life” (Vatican II, SC, no. 12; LG, 11).

1. Wilson has important points on prayerful hope. According to him, the virtue of hope is shaped in the practice of worship. What we learn in worship is that God has already given us everything in Jesus Christ. Commenting on Isaiah, Wilson cautions us against the worship God detests, that is, a worship done with bloody hands and corrupt lives (Is 1:10-17; Ps 73). He writes: Much that we call worship is hopeless because it enables us to live in conformity to the illusions of the world rather than in conformity to the schaton of the gospel. We need to recover the practice of worship in hope so that our vision may be corrected and our witness faithful.

Christian prayer is personal, too: “When you pray, go to your private room…, pray to your Father who is in that secret place…” (Mt 6:6). Vatican II: “The Christian is assuredly called to pray with his brethren, but he must also enter into his chamber to pray to the Father in secret.” Still, even private prayer and all private exercises of piety are ordered to or flow from the liturgy, especially the Eucharist.

 &nbspPrayer is a mediation of hope. The best mediating vocal prayer is the Our Father, which, according to St. Augustine, contains all that is related to hope.

&nbspWe remember: hope is certitude and fear. Hope is also patient and persevering. Moreover, Christian hope is prayerful. Lord, increase our hope. (FGB)

DIMENSIONS OF HOPE (# 4)

 

Relevant dimensions of hope are eschatological and temporal, personal and communitarian, and cosmic.  

ESCHATOLOGICAL AND TEMPORAL DIMENSIONS OF HOPE

The Christian hopes in the “here-after” and in the “here-now.” Christian eschatology is undividedly transcendent and immanent, anticipation of the future in the present and anticipating present of the future. The integral salvation of the human person begins now. In hope we expect our salvation at the end of time – eschatological salvation – and we work in time to attain it. Hence, hope integrates the eschatological and temporal (historical and social liberation dimensions od theological hope.

Christian hope is eschatological. Biblical hope is deeply permeated by the eschatological dimension of Christian hope. The final end determines our hope. Eschaton is the final coming of Christ. It is our telos, our end and the end of the whole creation redeemed by Christ.

In Christian hope we have a double eschatology: an absolute or definitive eschatology – the coming of the Kingdom at the end of time -, and an ecclesial and relative eschatology – the limited anticipation and realization of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Christian hope is also temporal. It is hope for our time and for all times in history. It is a historical and social hope. It commits us to the present, to the transformation of the present for the future.

Vatican II calls Christians to work for a better world as a demand of the coming Kingdom of God: “The expectation of a new earth must not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating this one. For here grows the body of a new human family, a body which even now is able to give some kind of foreshadowing of the new age” (GS 39).

&nbspIn the past, the vertical/eschatological dimension of hope was underlined. After Vatican II, in particular, the horizontal/temporal dimension was also given substantial importance. Indeed, our hope is not just “a pie in the sky: “If we hope for pie in the sky, can we ever really look for potatoes on earth? This hope is not a pie in the sky; it is hope for the resurrection of our potato-hopes”; “the eschatological hope must be hope for all other hopes, or it is not eschatological” (R. Jenson, The Futurist Option). An authentic Christian hope integrates and elevates legitimate human hopes: grace improves nature.

The human being lives in the present rooted in his past and oriented to his future. Life is love of the present, memory of the past and promise of the future. The full present is built on the wholeness of the past. We are grateful for the good past, and sorry for the evil. And also, for the wholeness of the future that we accept in hope and anticipate in love. We have to live our time in anticipation of eternal life (O. G. Cardedal, Raíz dela Esperanza).

PERSONAL AND COMMUNITARIAN DIMENSIONS OF HOPE

Theological hope is personal and communitarian. I hope to be saved; I hope salvation for others particularly for those close to me (Cf. St. Thomas, STh, II-II, 17, 3). With the eschatological dimension, Sacred Scripture stresses the communitarian dimension of hope. St. Charles de Foucauld, “the universal brother prayed: “Lord, may all humans go to heaven.”  

Hope is personal. The subject of hope is the human being and the act of his hope is his personal deed. Subject and act are open to the other, to the community and the whole creation. I want to be saved, and, therefore, I have to be continually converted – to God, to others and to nature. Each one of us is responsible for his salvation. God gives the gift of hope to each person, to each believer so that each one may know the God of hope by himself/herself. (Cf. Is 54:13; Jr 31:34: Ho 2:22; Jn 2:27; 6:45). Each one of us is asked to live his/her hope. Living our hope is not transferable. However, we can only live our personal hope with others and for others.

Hope is communitarian. The most adequate expression of the verb “hope” is, without doubt, “I hope in you for us.” Indeed, “hope is only possible at the level of the we.”  I plus thou, M. Buber tells us, equals we. In the we, the I and the thou are mutually enriched. Moreover, one can only encounter and accept a thou when encountering and accepting the Eternal Thou.”  Truly, “the hope in which we live is not a hope for me, but a hope for us” (J. R. Wilson; Gabriel Marcel, Homo Viator, and Martin Buber, I and Thou).   

Christian life is a life markedly communitarian. To live means to live in Christ who died for all (2 Cor 5:15), and to live in Christ implies to live in solidarity: “One in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28), “we are members of one another” (Eph 4:25), people who help each other to carry the burdens of life (Gal 6:2). It was said at the beginning of Christianity: Solus christianus, nullus christianus - A solitary Christian, not Christian.  

Living theological or Christian hope is loving hope - hope “informed” by charity. Hope -faithful and living hope - moves the Christians to eagerly want and be committed to the salvation of the whole humanity. Thus, Christian hope is deeply concerned with mission: the mission of evangelization, of preaching the Good News that is Jesus.

Hope is, indeed, a firm impulse to change the world in the perspective of God’s promises. It is a revolutionary force which strives to create conditions favorable to the women and men most loved by God, the poorest and the weakest (F. Kertiens).  

HOPE IS ALSO COSMIC HOPE.

On the way to beatitude, Christians wait for the redemption of the world (Rom 8:19-25). Their theological hope is not only communitarian, but also cosmic. In a sense, the whole universe expects a new heaven and a new earth. “Through each human being, the cosmos hopes: in the reality of man, the cosmic mineral, vegetative and animal obtains culmination… Already in the natural order… the subject of hope is ‘I in the universe,” or, better, ‘I with the universe’” (Pedro Lain Entralgo, Espera y esperanza)).  

St. Augustine - already converted and in deep love with God - wrote: “the universe and everything in it tells me to love you, and tells the same thing to us all, so that we are without excuse” (Confessions, Bk Ten, 6). When young Therese of the Child Jesus, remembering the marvelous beauty of God's creation, writes: "My heart longed for other marvels. It had contemplated earthly beauties long enough; those of heaven were the object of its desires and to win them for souls I was willing to become a prisoner" (Story of a Soul).

Reflecting on Gen 1:28, Protestant theologian J. R. Wilson makes an enlightening comment: “God’s command to subdue and have dominion over the earth is given before the Fall, that is, when Adam and Eve were sinless and, therefore, not yet affected by the Fall, when humanity became sinful.” Wilson adds: “We have to care for the earth because God loved it enough to send his Son to redeem it.”

A must-reading regarding the cosmic dimension of hope is Pope Francis’ acclaimed encyclical letter Laudato Si (2015), where he says that a through-away culture, a culture of consumerism is anti-creation. A point that ought to be underlined (usually underplayed or sidelined by some gurus of climate change) is the close connection there is between “the cry of the earth” and “the cry of the poor.”

St. Francis of Assisi is one of the best examples of an integral care and caring for our common home. He was “a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace” (LS’, no. 10).  (FGB)