2.2 What Keeps Us Going?

Hope It is a virtue that makes it possible for us to seek the Kingdom of God. It helps us to do what is good and right and loving even when we cannot see that it is making a difference. It allows us to take risks for the sake of others. It gives us strength to act unselfishly and to give generously. It opens our eyes to the possibility of good in unexpected places.

Hope It helps us to see what can be changed and gives us the courage and commitment to make changes. It enables us to accept and cope with things we cannot change. It sustains us when we feel abandoned. It inspires us when we are drifting aimlessly. It anchors us when our lives are in chaos. It protects us from despair.

Christian Hope Christian hope focuses on the promises that God has made, for we know that God always does what God has promised. God will redeem us and give us eternal life in him. Hope, for Christians, is nourished and made stronger by prayer. As with all virtues, we need to work at it and do what God wants us to do, even if it is hard or seems pointless. This is how our hope will grow stronger and we will even be able to find joy in the hardest times.

Hope and the First Commandment “I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me.” This is not only a call to avoid idolatry. It is also a call to place all of our hope in God. Hope in God is to admit that everything that comes from God is good and is given to God’s people as a gift of love. Hope in God is to rely on God and to ask God to be part of everything we do. When we don’t hope in God, we break the first commandment.

Refusals to Hope in God Despair - when we stop believing in God’s love and mercy. We start to believe that our failures are things with real power. We turn our backs on God and act as if we are beyond His reach. We question God’s goodness and power. We then place our trust in powers other than God. Presumption – believing we don’t need God and that God will always do what we want because He needs us more than we need Him. We presume that God will always forgive and forget no matter what we do. We feel that we can effect change without God’s assistance but intsead through human intention. Hope doesn’t rely on human strength, but on the help of the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with joy as we wait for the coming of our Saviour. Hope is willed in cooperation with God.

Prophets of Hope, Prophets of Love In his 1996 letter for World Youth Day, St. John Paul II asked young people to be prophets of love, life and joy. Providing those around us with reasons for living and hoping is the job of every Christian. We evangelize and spreading the good news through our living example of the joys of life in Christ and a great hope that has already been fulfilled: the hope for Jesus who has already died and has risen for us. There is always the hope and promise of a better future through life in Christ no matter how bad things get. We share this belief with others by sharing a genuine Christian love.

Love vs. Suicide Love and suicide are opposites. Suicide shows a lack of love for oneself and one’s neighbour. “It unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity in the family” (C.C.C. #2281) and with others. It shows a lack of love for God, to whom all life belongs. We can never understand another person’s reasons for despairing and resorting to suicide. While suicide is wrong, “grave psychological disturbances, anguish or grave fear of hardship, suffering or torture can diminish the responsiblity of one committing suicide.” C.C.C. #2282