The Holy Spirit and the
Virtue of Hope
H. H.
John Paul II
General Audience
November 11, 1998
1. The Holy Spirit,
poured out “without measure” by Jesus Christ, crucified and risen,
is “the One who builds the kingdom of God within the course of
history and prepares its full manifestation in Jesus Christ ...
which will come at the end of time” (Tertio millennio adveniente, n.
45). In this eschatological perspective believers are called, during
this year dedicated to the Holy Spirit, to a renewed appreciation of
the theological virtue of hope, which “on the one hand encourages
the Christian not to lose sight of the final goal which gives
meaning and value to life, and on the other, offers solid and
profound reasons for a daily commitment to transform reality in
order to make it correspond to God’s plan” (ibid., n. 46).
2. St Paul underlines the intimate and deep bond which exists
between the gift of the Holy Spirit and the virtue of hope. “Hope”,
he says in the Letter to the Romans, “does not disappoint us,
because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). Yes, the very gift of
the Holy Spirit, filling our hearts with God’s love and making us
children of the Father in Jesus Christ (cf. Gal 4:6), instils in us
the sure hope that nothing “will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:39). For this reason,
the God revealed in the “fullness of time” in Jesus Christ is truly
“the God of hope”, who fills believers with joy and peace, so that
“by the power of the Holy Spirit [they] may abound in hope” (Rom
15:13). Thus Christians are called to be witnesses to this joyful
experience in the world, and to “always be prepared to make a
defence to any one who calls [them] to account for the hope” that is
in them (1 Pt 3:15).
3. Christian hope brings to fulfilment the hope inspired by God in
the People of Israel, and finds its own origin and model in Abraham,
who “believed against hope that he should become the father of many
nations” (Rom 4:18). Ratified in the covenant made by the Lord with
his people through Moses, the hope of Israel was constantly
rekindled down the centuries by the preaching of the prophets.
Lastly, it was centred on the promise of the eschatological
outpouring of God’s Spirit on the Messiah and on all his people (cf.
Is 11:2; Ez 36:27; Jl 3:1-2). This promise was fulfilled in Jesus.
He is not only the witness to the hope which is open to anyone who
becomes his disciple. He himself, in his person and in his work of
salvation, is “our hope” (1 Tm 1:1), since he proclaims and brings
about God’s kingdom. The Beatitudes are the “Magna Charta” of this
kingdom (cf. Mt 5:3-12). “The Beatitudes raise our hope toward
heaven as the new Promised Land; they trace the path that leads
through the trials that await the disciples of Jesus” (CCC, n.
1820).
4. Made Christ and Lord through the paschal mystery (cf. Acts 2:36),
Jesus becomes “a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45), and believers,
baptized in him with water and the Spirit (cf. Jn 3:5), are “born
anew to a living hope” (1 Pt 1:3). Henceforth the gift of salvation,
through the Holy Spirit, is the pledge and seal (cf. 2 Cor 1:21-22;
Eph 1:13-14) of the full communion with God to which Christ leads
us. The Holy Spirit, one reads in the Letter to Titus, was “poured
out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that we
might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal
life” (Ti 3:6-7).
5. Also according to the Fathers of the Church the Holy Spirit is
“the gift which lavishes perfect hope upon us” (St Hilary of
Poitiers, De Trinitate, II, 1). In fact, says St Paul, it is the
Spirit “bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with
Christ” (Rom 8:16-17). Christian life grows and matures to its
fullness from that “already” of salvation which is the life of God's
children in Christ, in which we are made to share by the Holy
Spirit. From the experience of this gift, it longs with trusting
perseverance for the “not yet” and the “yet more”, which God has
promised us and will give us at the end of time. Indeed as St Paul
maintains, if one is really a son, then one is also heir to all that
belongs to the Father with Christ, the “first-born among many
brethren” (Rom 8:29). “All that the Father has is mine”, says Jesus
(Jn 16:15). For this reason, in communicating his Spirit to us, he
makes us share in the inheritance of the Father and gives us the
pledge and firstfruits. This divine reality is the inexhaustible
source of Christian hope.
6. The Church’s teaching sees hope as one of the three theological
virtues, poured out by God into the heart of believers through the
Holy Spirit. It is that 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, n. 1817). To the gift of
hope “special attention should be given ... especially in our day in
which many people, including quite a few Christians, are floundering
in the illusion and myth of an unlimited capacity for
self-redemption and self-fulfilment and the temptation to pessimism
from the experience of frequent disappointment and defeat” (General
Audience 3 July 1991; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 8 July
1991, p. 11). Many dangers seem to loom over the future of humanity,
many uncertainties weigh on man’s personal destiny and he frequently
feels incapable of dealing with them. In addition, the crisis of the
meaning of life and the enigma of pain and death keep knocking
relentlessly at the door of our contemporaries’ hearts. The message
of hope which comes from Jesus Christ brightens this horizon
darkened by uncertainty and pessimism. Hope sustains and protects us
in the good fight of faith (cf. Rom 12:12). It is nourished by
prayer, and most particularly by the “Our Father”, “the summary of
everything that hope leads us to desire” (CCC, n. 1820).
7. Today it is not enough to reawaken hope in individual
consciences; it is necessary to cross the threshold of hope
together. Hope, in fact, essentially has — as we will have the
opportunity to examine — a community as well as a social dimension,
so that what the Apostle says in the proper and direct sense for the
Church can in a broader sense be applied to the vocation of all
humanity: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called
to the one hope that belongs to your call” (Eph 4:4).
To the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors the Holy Father said:
I extend a special greeting to the students and staff of the
Ecumenical Institute of Bossey: I encourage you to persevere in the
search for full unity among Christians. I welcome the Tendai
Buddhist delegation from Japan. Upon all the English-speaking
pilgrims and visitors, especially those from Canada, the United
States and Japan, I invoke the joy and peace of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
After greeting the different groups in their various languages, the
Holy Father spoke in Polish about the 80th anniversary of Poland’s
independence.
Today we are celebrating the 80th anniversary of independence — the
beginning of the Second Republic. The armistice signed on 11
November brought our nation the long-awaited liberation from
arbitrary partition. That act of historical justice was not only due
to the favourable political situation then created in Europe, but
was above all the fruit of the whole nation’s tenacious efforts to
safeguard its own identity and spiritual freedom. Many of Poland’s
sons and daughters contributed to this achievement by offering their
talents, energy and hard work. Many of them had to face forced
emigration. Finally, many paid the highest price for the freedom of
their fatherland, shedding their blood and giving their life during
the series of uprisings and on the fronts of the various wars. Our
forebears made all these efforts by drawing on the hope that springs
from deep faith in God, the Lord of human history and of nations.
This faith also sustained them after they regained freedom, when
despite differences, there was a need to seek unity and to rebuild
the country and defend its borders together. The Second World War
unfortunately interrupted the work which had begun well, but the
seed of freedom was saved and by the will of divine Providence is
bearing fruit in our day. Today, together with the entire Polish
nation, I thank the good Lord for this ineffable gift of his mercy
and commend to him the souls of the deceased and the fallen.
On this day in particular I ask God for the grace of faith, hope and
charity for all my compatriots, so that they may be able to make
good use of the precious gift of freedom in unity and in peace. May
the protection of Mary, Our Lady of Jasna Góra, always accompany our
homeland and all our compatriots. Praised be Jesus Christ!
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