Fr. JC Maximilian

St. Peter tells us, in our second reading today, to “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope….”  How many of us are truly ready to do just that?  A good starting point for answering this question is looking at what do we, as Christians, mean when we use the word “hope.”  Fortunately for us, Pope Benedict XVI recently wrote a beautiful encyclical that is all about hope; in fact it is entitled, Spe Salvi, which is translated “Saved in Hope.”

For many people hope is little more than a wish for a better future.  It tends to be rather abstract and “pie-in-the-sky.”  Hope is not seen as something that has anything to do with present reality.  As Christians, we have more solid understanding of the virtue of hope.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes hope as, “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” (CCC #1817).  A quick reading of this definition of the virtue of hope might lead some of us to conclude that it is just a fancier way of saying that it is a wish for a better future.  There is no denying that there is an element of looking to the future in Christian Hope, but there is much more to it.  Hope is the desire for the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness.  This is not just a desire for something only in the future, but a desire for something NOW.  While the kingdom of heaven will not be complete until the end of time, it is the desire of every person who takes serious their Christian faith to desire the building up of the kingdom of heaven now.

This is one of the reasons why in Scripture the words faith and hope are often used almost interchangeably.  Faith and hope is not just about the “not yet.”  Rather they draw the future into the present, so as to change the way we live in the present.  Our faith in Jesus gives life a new basis; He reveals to us what life is really all about.  One of the first images of Christ to appear on Christian tombs had Jesus carrying a philosopher staff.  For the people of that time, a philosopher was someone who teaches the art of being authentically human, both in living and in dying.  Christian faith and hope is lived because Christ Jesus has communicated the substance of what true life is.  As He says in the Gospel, “I have come that you might have life, life to the full.”

In his encyclical, Pope Benedict uses the sacrament of Baptism as an example for learning about hope.  The sacrament of Baptism actually begins outside the church; the parents and the child should be met at the door of the church as a sign that the child is not yet a member of the Church.  After asking the parents what name do they give their child, they are asked “What do you ask of God’s Church for your child?”  Now there are several acceptable answers to this question such as “baptism,” “entrance into the Church,” etc., but one of the better answers is “Faith.”  In the old rite of baptism the priest would then ask, “What does faith give you?” and the parents would answer, “Eternal Life.”  Right in that simple exchange we see the connection between faith and hope; Faith in the Lord Jesus points to Eternal Life.  It also points to the nature of this faith and hope.  The child is obviously not able to understand a bunch of doctrines and dogmas; in fact the parents and godparents have to say the Creed for the child.  So faith is not primarily about knowing a group of facts.  Faith, and hope, is about having an encounter with God, and encounter with Jesus Christ who loves us and has saved us.  It is Jesus, through His Passion, Death and Resurrection, who has redeemed us so that we can share in eternal life.  While their parents, and hopefully their godparents, will teach the newly baptized child their prayers and the basic “facts” or doctrines of the faith, their real responsibility is to witness a living, loving relationship with Christ Jesus in their own lives so that their child will also desire a living, loving relationship with Christ Jesus.

So what is this hope that we should always be ready to give an explanation of?  St. Paul, in writing to the Ephesians says that they were without hope because they were without God in the world.  As Pope Benedict says in his encyclical, hope for the Christian is to come to know God.  Hope is a relationship with God who is Beauty, who is Truth, who is Love.  Hope is a relationship with God who is the source of life.  The unconditional love of God is what gives us the certainty that we need in life.  As St. Paul says in the Letter to the Romans, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).  How do we give an explanation to anyone who asks us for a reason for our hope?  By witnessing in our lives our relationship of love with Christ Jesus which calls us to love our brothers and sisters with His love.

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