Clarifying Two Meanings Of Hope
By DONALD DeMARCO
We are inescapably creatures of the future. This is why we live in hope. We need a reason to get up in the morning. But there are two radically different kinds of hope. It is important that we understand how they are different and how they relate to each other. To the first, we may assign the word “immediate.” We use this designation on a daily basis. We hope it will not rain tomorrow. We hope our team will win. We hope you are feeling better. This kind of hope is not far removed from wish. Nonetheless, it carries us forward and gives added meaning to tomorrow. It is ephemeral, however, since every hope fulfilled is replaced by a hope yet to be fulfilled. We live from one hope to another and learn that none of our hopes has lasting satisfaction.
To the second kind of hope we may assign the word “eternal.” This is the hope that does not disappear and is irreplaceable. It is the hope that survives when all the day-to-day hopes are fulfilled. It is the hope that characterizes us as persons and is inseparable from us. It is like a barnacle attached to its host. As the author of Moby Dick has said, “Hope proves man deathless. It is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable and attesting her eternity.”
In Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey looks back on his life and recalls his youth in the lines “… to-day he puts forth / The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms.” But for Wolsey, hope does not spring eternal. In his old age, at the end of a wasted political career, he finds himself in a state of despair: “And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, / Never to hope again” (Act 3, Scene 2). There are no more tragic words than these.
At the entrance of Hell, inscribed in dim colors above the doorway’s lofty arch, appeared a sentence that caused Dante to shudder. Turning to his guide, the Roman poet Virgil, he said, “Master, these words import hard meaning.” Hard meaning, indeed! “Abandon hope, ye who enter here,” — “Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch’entrate.” These words express the very essence of hell — life without hope (The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto 3)
To be in hell is to be without hope. The reverse of this statement is also true: To be without hope is to be in hell. Despair is a condition that many experience when they have lost the hope that gives their lives an overriding significance. Pursuing our immediate hopes can distract us from the realization of our eternal hope. We were created to be with God. The baubles we pick up along the way are not lasting. Eternal hope transcends immediate hope.
Life is a journey and eternal hope is our North Star. Therefore, it is appropriate that one traveling through this life be called “pilgrim,” “wayfarer,” “journeyman,” and “homo viator.” Hope is always with us while we continue to travel toward it.
Early in his pontificate, John Paul II acquired the nickname “His Polishness the Hope.” He was the virtual embodiment of hope. It was fitting, then, that George Weigel titled his definitive biography of His Holiness, Witness to Hope. When John Paul addressed the United Nations in 1995, he dared to present himself as a “witness to hope” despite the fact that he spoke these words at the end of a century known for unprecedented wickedness.
As the third millennium was approaching, the Holy Father stated that “Christians are called to prepare for the Great Jubilee of the beginning of the Third Millennium by renewing their hope in the definitive coming of the Kingdom of God, preparing for it daily in their hearts, in the Christian community to which they belong, in their particular social context, and in world history itself.” This hope is not the hope of secular humanism. Nor is it the hope of a materialist way of life. It is an eternal hope that is related to Christ and His Kingdom.
Pope Benedict XVI continued the work of John Paul II in stressing the essential importance of hope. In his 2007 book, Saved in Hope (Spe Salvi) he warns that too much emphasis on satisfying the immediate hopes can cause a person to lose eternal hope: “Yet our daily efforts in pursuing our own lives and in working for the world’s future either tire us or turn into fanaticism unless we are enlightened by the radiance of the great hope that cannot be destroyed even by small-scale failures or by a breakdown in matters of historic importance.” We cannot build the Kingdom of God by our own efforts. We should understand that our immediate hopes should be set within the context of our eternal hope.
As we journey through life mindful of our eternal hope, our choices and actions are placed in order. Consequently, our eternal hope has an important influence on our immediate hopes. We should not want to live in a disordered way as if our earthly pilgrimage is inconsistent with our ultimate hope. Our eternal hope confers importance on selecting our immediate hopes wisely. The two hopes are coordinated in the same way as Heaven and earth.
We are saved by hope when we align our daily decisions to that ultimate hope which leads us to God and the Heaven that he has prepared for us.
