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I’ve received a couple calls in recent weeks asking if I might be able to give a talk on hope. Partly, I suspect Pope Francis is to blame. He has declared 2025 as a Jubilee Year in which we are to become “pilgrims of hope.” But partly, I suspect people are reaching out because hope is a bit in short supply right now. At least I know it is for me. Someone calls and says, “Can you talk about hope?” and the voice inside my head says, “I think you might be asking the wrong person.” I’m as discouraged as the next person in this ongoing “bleak mid-winter.” (Seriously. Punxsutawney Phil is predicting six more weeks of it.)
Still, because they’ve asked, I’ve start to read some more things about hope. O my goodness. For a long time, I considered myself a hopeful person because I use the word “hope” a lot. I hope not to hit traffic on my drive. I hope I get a check in the mail today. I hope my friend with cancer recovers. And why not hope widely and generously? Hope is a virtue, right?
Turns out that St. Thomas Aquinas says that what I was labeling “hope” is really just a synonym for my “passions” – i.e. what I want. I want not to hit traffic. I want my check. I want my friend to recover. Thomas says that hope isn’t a matter of just entrusting to God whatever it is that I want. It is a virtue only when its object is God. In essence, Christian hope is about wanting God, and whatever it is that God wants—the Reign of God. (Thomas uses the language of the Kingdom of Heaven, but same thing.) Maybe the best definition of Christian hope that I’ve found is that hope is the strength to keep longing for and striving toward the common good (another name for God’s reign) even when it is not realized in one’s own time. And to keep longing for and striving toward a meaningful life with God, because that is realizable whatever else is going on.
I think that the coming two Sunday’s readings are great for helping us ponder what truly Christian hope is all about. Here is my reflection for Sunday, February 9th on the call of Isaiah—considering how we can practice longing for and working toward the Reign of God in the present moment. And then here is where my reflection for Sunday, February 16th will be posted shortly. (The US Catholic team has let me know it should be up there on February 10th) This latter reflection is about God as the object of our hope.
Another resource that I’d like to share that might sustain your hope as Lent approaches is my friend Clarence Heller’s daily Lenten devotional: A Heart Journey Through Lent 2025. Clarence is one of my favorite poets and one of the world’s gentlest souls. You might recognize his name as the author of the poem I included in the closing chapter of Redeeming Administration:
MORE
The devil came to me disguised as more,
One more good thing I could do,
Should do,
And then another,
And another.
I was seduced and misguided.
The more sapped my energy, my joy, my delight.
There was more harshness and impatience
In my voice and my presence.
And the devil grinned,
While God sighed patiently
Knowing that when I get worn down enough,
I’ll come home to my true self,
To being my true self in God.
- Clarence Heller, More
Still trying to learn my lesson there!
But I’ll close with another little bit from Clarence on the theme of hope that we’ve been talking about. Not exactly how Thomas writes about hope in the Summa, but maybe would have if he’d spent more time on Clarence’s farm in the middle of Missouri!
IMPORTANT
When your life feels like crap,
It can be important to remember
That for many seeds
The path to germination
Includes some critter’s digestive tract.
You can get his Lenten devotional here!
(Photo credit: Nick Fewings)