Spe salvi, 2

After his introductory paragraph to the encyclical Spe salvi, Pope Benedict XVI turns to examine hope itself as found in the Scriptures and notes that hope is often used interchangeably with faith in the writings of the New Testament.

The author of the epistle to the Hebrews writes, saying,

[L]et us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful… (10:22-23).

In ordinary parlance, one does not confess hope but faith, yet the sacred writer uses the words one for the other.

Turning to the first letter of Peter, we find the same interchangeability:

Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence (3:15).

Again, one does not ordinarily seek to defend a hope but one would certainly seek to defend faith.

Saint Paul would even go so far as to write to the Ephesians, reminding them that before their faith in Christ Jesus “you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (2:12).

We see, then, that the “assurance of faith” is the “confession of our hope” “that is in you”, without which we are “without God in the world”. Faith and hope are very closely related, indeed.

Referring to the lives of the pagans, Paul “knew they had had other gods, he knew they had had a religion, but their gods proved questionable, and no hope emerged from their contradictory myths” (Spe salvi, 2).

Here, then, is one of the great distinguishing factors of Christianity from the rest of the religions of world: Christianity produces hope for the future because Christ has been found faithful and trustworthy. Christ Jesus has not proved “questionable” but has proved fully reliable for the words he spoke before his crucifixion were fulfilled afterwards: “the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day” (Matthew 20:19)

The Holy Father reminds us that, “notwithstanding their gods, they were ‘without God’ and consequently found themselves in a dark world, facing a dark future” (Spe salvi, 2).

Considering the darkness of the world of the pagans resulting from their lack of hope, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep [e.g., dead], that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (I Thessalonians 4:13).

For the pagans, death was, at worst, simply the end of existence; at best, it was the beginning of a meaningless, eternal, existence. Consequently, life had little meaning and we find that as a result many of the pagans were turning to the mystery cults in the years surrounding the life of Christ. We are, today, experiencing an increase of these same sentiments.

This is not so with Christianity; in Christianity, life certainly has meaning and purpose. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christian hope “leads towards a goal … great enough to justify the effort of the journey” (Spe salvi, 1). Christians may not know “the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness” (Spe salvi, 2).

Having said this, His Holiness turns from the future life to that of the present: “Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well” (Spe salvi, 2).

Life can only truly be fully lived if the future is known to be positive, if it is known to be good. If the future is good then we have reason to live in the present; if the future is bleak, if it is negative, there is no purpose, no meaning, to this present life. Christian hope knows the joy of the promised resurrection of the dead and union with Christ, hence the present life, “even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted” (Spe salvi, 1).

It is precisely because the message of the Gospel, the hope that is given, allows believers to live the present life that the message of Christianity is “not only ‘informative’ but ‘performative’” (Spe salvi, 2).

The proclamation of the Gospel is never simply about the passing on of information about Jesus Christ or of his Church. The proclamation of the Gospel must always be “performative” in that “it makes things happen and is life-changing” (Spe salvi, 2). Because “redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope” (Spe salvi, 1), “the dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open” (Spe salvi, 2). This hope given to the Christian is such that “on the basis of that hope and simply because it exists, we are redeemed” (Spe salvi, 1).

This is a truth of the faith well worth pondering that “in this hope we were saved” (Romans 8:24). Because of this hope, because of this redemption, “the one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life” (Spe salvi, 2).

In the next paragraph we will take at look at the difference found in this new life granted through hope.