Life is Still Worth Living, Ep 25, The Virtue of Hope
This week on Life is Still Worth Living – The Virtue of Hope.
As Promised, Pope Benedict’s excellent encyclical, Spes Salvi is here.
Six quotations this week.
First, From the Baltimore Catechism
Q. What is hope?
A. Hope is the virtue by which we firmly trust that God, who is all-powerful and faithful to His promises, will in His mercy give us eternal happiness and the means to obtain it.
Next, From Pope Benedict XVI, Spes Salvi
[St. Paul said to the] Thessalonians: you must not “grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Th 4:13). Here… we see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness. Which means simply that Christianity is not just a moral system of the here and now. It is a religion which worships God and that is not just informative but substantial… It changes us and it changes the way we see the world.
Third, from The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
Q. What is hope? (see also, Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 1817-1821, 1843)
A. Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire and await from God eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit to merit it and to persevere to the end of our earthly life.
Fourth, also from The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
What is the hope of the new heavens and the new earth? (1042-1050, 1060)
After the ?nal judgment the universe itself, freed from its bondage to decay, will share in the glory of Christ with the beginning of “the new heavens” and a “new earth” (2 Peter 3:13). Thus, the fullness of the Kingdom of God will come about, that is to say, the de?nitive realization of the salvi?c plan of God to “unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). God will then be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28) in eternal life.
Fifth, from the Catechism of Pope St. Pius X, no. 38
Q. What grounds have we to hope that God will give us Heaven and the means necessary to secure it?
A. We hope that God will give us Heaven and the necessary means to attain it, because the all-merciful God, through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, has promised it to those who faithfully serve Him; and, being both faithful and omnipotent, He never fails in His promises.
Sixth, also from the Catechism of Pope St. Pius X, no. 39
Q. What are the conditions necessary to obtain Heaven?
A. The conditions necessary to obtain Heaven are the grace of God, the practice of good works, and perseverance until death in His holy love.
Music: Marc Gunn
Fr. Ryan | Posted in Life is Still Worth Living | 2 Comments »
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Joe
