Category: Hope

Supernatural and natural hope

“Natural hope blossoms with the strength of youth and withers when youth withers… For supernatural hope, the opposite is true: not only is it not bound to natural youth; it is actually rooted in a much more substantial youthfulness. It bestows on mankind a “not yet” that is entirely superior to and distinct from the failing strength of man’s natural hope” (Faith, Hope, Love, p. 110).

Hope and Christ

“The embodiment, at once symbolic and truly fundamental, of the supernatural life in man is the man Christ, “in whom dwells the fullness of the godhead”. He is also the embodiment of our hope: “Christ in you, your hope of glory!” (Col 1:27). (How does it happen that we are so prone to understand Holy Scripture in a vague approximation rather than in the precise meaning of its passages? It is due in part, perhaps, to a decline in the proper dogmatic interpretation of Scripture)” (Faith, Hope, Love, p. 105-106).

Sharing of the triune life of God

“The supernatural life in man has three main currents: the reality of God, which surpasses all natural knowledge, manifests itself to faith. Love affirms–also in its own right–the Highest Good, which has become visible beneath the veil of faith. Hope is the confidently partient expectation of eternal beatitude in a contemplative and comprehensive sharing of the triune life of God; hope expects from God’s hand the eternal life that is God himself: ‘sperat Deum a Deo'” (Faith, Hope, Love, p. 103).