THE VIRTUE OF HOPE
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit . Amen. The Triune God has told us that whenever we gather in His name, He would be with us. If we believe that God is in this room at this moment, a presence among us , then we have the virtue of hope. In this context we are not talking about a hope for a better tomorrow or a hope for good grades or good jobs. In fact we are not talking about a hope for something but rather a hope in something, a hope in eternal life with God. I emphasize "with God" because we all have eternal life, but with the virtue of hope we have a belief in the possibility of spending that eternal life in the everlasting, ever-loving presence of God.
virtues. They are so called because they are infused in us through the
Grace of God.
At a sport's event on television have you ever seen the cameras pan the stands and the fans and then zero in on a group which has hung a banner over the railing in front of them. It's about six feet long and maybe three feet high, and it says John 3:1 6? The first time I saw it I thought it was some kind of joke. Then I looked it up : "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that everyone who believes in Him might never die , but might have eternal life (with Him). The people who hang that banner have the virtue of hope, and they are acting as channels for the Grace of God infusing, the virtue in others. Does that mean that only those who hang banners saying "John 3:16" or those who go to Mass and Communion every day or those who come on retreats are the only ones who have the virtue of hope? No. Let me tell you a story about as man who was a "hopeless" drug addict, a "hopeless" alcoholic. He lived homeless on the streets of London. But he had the virtue of hope. We know this because he left us a legacy in the form of a poem. It's a poem about a God who is relentless in His desire for us to spend eternal life with Him. He is constantly following us , holding out love and forgiveness, pouring out His Grace so that we will turn around and accept that love and forgiveness. He is dogging our heels. He is hounding us. And that is what Francis Thompson called his poem, "The Hound of Heaven". Let me recite the first few lines of this beautiful poem:
I fled Him down the nights and down the days
I fled Him down the arches of the years
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind and in
the midst of tears I hid from Him. And under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped - And shot precipated lo down titanic glooms
of chasmed fears from those strong feet that followed I followed after.
But with unhurrying chase, unperturbed pace, deliberate speed ,
majestic instancy, they beat and a voice beat more instant than the
feet: "All things betray thee who betrayest Me."
I pleaded outlaw wise by many a hearted casement curtained red,
trellised with intertwining charities. For though I knew His love who
followed, yet was I sore adread lest having Him I must have nought
We can infer from this beautiful poem that Francis Thompson had the virtue of hope and his words are funnels for the Grace of God infusing the virtue into others. We all have an obligation to be God's instrument.
I have a friend. I'll call him Paul. One day after a roundtable discussion , Paul said to me, "John, if we are judged immediately after death, why do we have to wait for the final judgement? We're already judged. What about the people who died two thousand years ago ? Why do they have to wait for a final judgement and where are they?"When I get questions like that , I get this kind of thousand yard stare. and then my eyes dart from side to side looking for the nearest door, but I finally said, , "Paul I haven't the foggiest idea but i'll try to find out for you."
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It took me weeks. I read about it and mostly thought about it. I came back to Paul and said, "Paul, as near as I can figure there are three kinds of time. There is our time- 65, 75, 85, 95 years. We think in that time frame. We might even be able to get a handle on 2,000 years. And in that time perspective the wait between the particular judgment and the General judgment seems vast. But there are two other kinds of time. one is universal time. God may have started creation ten or fifteen billion years ago. I have a hard time with billions. Just when I think I have a grasp on it, it gets away from me. But someone once said that if we put those ten or fifteen billion years on a 24 hour clock, that Adam and Eve may only have arrived a minute or more before the twenty fourth hour, and we Adams and Eves, all of humanity, will be gone as the clock strikes the twenty fourth hour. So, in universal time the immediate judgment and the final judgment could be side by side. The third kind of time is eternity-no beginning and no end. There is no way I can square root no beginning and no end but I have faith in it. Christianity and in particular Catholic Christianity is to a degree based upon mystery, upon faith. We can't have the virtue of hope unless we have the virtue of faith . For example, at every Mass the priest or the Deacon will say, 'By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.' This is a wine which will shortly be changed into the Blood of Christ. The Divinity of Christ: A Christ we believe was human and divine at the same time. Who humbled Himself to share in our humanity. I've always thought that a thread of humility ran through all of the beatitudes, the sermon on the mount, Christ's teaching, but this is the purest of humility - God becoming man. We believe . We have faith." Paul was nodding his head. I finished saying, "If we have faith in eternity-God's time, then the immediate judgment and the final judgment could be almost simultaneous."
As in the last line of the part of Francis Thompson's poem which I recited, " For though I knew His love who followed, yet was I sore a dread lest having Him I must have nought besides", we all have doubts at some time in our lives and we sometimes feed those doubts because we are reluctant to give up what we perceive to be the pleasures of life for the way of Christ. I don't know whether or not I helped paul. He was grasping at theological straws. I don't know if my answer was theologically correct. I do know that by trying to help Paul, I nurtured my own virtue of hope, a hope in the possibility of spending eternal life seeing the face God. We have an obligation to help. Does it always have to be
answering final Judgment, immediate judgment questions. I don't look forward to another one like that. There are many ways we can act as channels for God's Grace which infuses the virtue of hope in others. There are people sitting out there who go to an abortion mill twice a month. Some have been doing this for many years . They don't go to condemn. They go to comfort . They go to offer help . They go to witness the Gospel of Life to passersby. They go to bring hope by the Grace of God, There are also people sitting out there who have a ministry to teenagers in prison. They don't preach the Gospel at these teens. they share the Gospel message with them. The bring them hope. There is one woman here who has been counseling women at a crisis pregnancy for years. She does not condemn women coming in. She offers them alternatives. She acts as god's instrument in bringing them hope,
There are even simpler ways. It could be a chance encounter, a random act of kindness, a wink, a hug, a pat. We must reach out - Let me read you what a Catholic encyclopedia says about this obligation. it comes under the heading of WITNESS:
"All who are followers of Christ are called to bear witness to the hope that he imparts to Christians and to the whole world. In this, sense the shape of the Christian's daily life is a living witness to his faith and hope in Christ. The Christian may also be also called upon to bear witness to Christ in words, in exhortation, in encouragement in preaching, in defending the faith, and so on."
AMEN