On February 16, the wonderful Sr. Orianne René Petra fsp published an exceptional article titled A Year of Hope, in regards to this year’s Jubilee.
A very brief excerpt reads:
With all that we face today, both around us and within us, that easy, Hallmark-like hope is sure to disappoint. Yet what is the very verse of Scripture with which Pope Francis begins this Jubilee Year’s Bull of Indiction?
“Hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5).
Have not our hopes been disappointed? Then what kind of hope is St. Paul talking about? And how could it not be left shattered in the wake of all that we face, collectively and individually, today?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church lays out a very different understanding of hope for the Christian, not merely as an expectation, but as a supernatural virtue:
“Hope is the theological 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” (No. 1817).
Desiring the kingdom of heaven and eternal life AS our happiness… How often do we consider what we put our “happiness” stock in? Is it in things that are passing, and always have been? Things like health, wealth, relationships with no hitches, global stability, doing what you want when you want to? Or do we put your stock in the kingdom of heaven, and in eternal life with Christ?
-
Meditating on this over night, I woke up wondering if readers would miss the elephant in the room? I sure did until the meaning unexpectedly arrived over this morning’s coffee.
It is that this hope, this desire, and the faith and action it can lead us toward (if only we would follow) is the meaning of life. It approaches the culmination of our destiny - salvation and communion in God. It is the nature of walking The Way.
The meaning of life is not found in what fades but in what lasts. To live in hope—real hope—is to live in the light of eternity.
Selah
For deeper readings into Hope, see select references below:
Spes non confundit - Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 (9 May 2024) 3 / Pope Francis
The Holy Bible Romans 5 / Douay-Rheims Translation, Challoner Revision
The Holy Bible Romans 8 / Douay-Rheims Translation, Challoner Revision
Spes non confundit - Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 (9 May 2024) 19 / Pope Francis
