“Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore” (John 21:4)
Hope lifts up, carries away. It awakens, makes one rise, gives life, urges, moves forward, gives a goal, opens up the horizon, fills with joy, exalts,…
What a marvel hope is!
That said, we must seek out specifically Christian hope. For this kind of hope claims to be different; it claims to be “theological”—that is, directly connecting us to God. Hope, by definition, implies the attainment of a Promise. This Promise is the object of hope. The object of Christian hope is different from other the objects of other hopes: it is union with Christ. And the temptations to reduce Christian hope to human, earthly hopes – entirely legitimate as they may be- are constant.
Let us take an example: one can read the life of Mother Teresa in different ways. From a human point of view, her work is excellent, incredible, incredibly human and filled with a deep and selfless charity. She can thus touch millions of people and bring light and hope. She can inspire hundreds of similar initiatives, not only praiseworthy but absolutely necessary. Who can deny it? She offers attention to those who are the poorest among the poor. And we also have in the Gospel what supports such a choice, such a vocation—let us think of chapter 25 of Saint Matthew, the Last Judgement, and let us put it in words that resonate with what Mother Teresa did:
“I was poor among the poor, forgotten, despised, abandoned, left by all, and you came to me, and gave me something to drink, care, a roof over my head. Thank you. I was completely destitute, poor among the poor, and you came to me. It was I, Christ, in them!”
Who can deny that?
And the temptation is overwhelming to stop there, to see only that, and to remain convinced of it for the rest of one’s life. This is the social message of the Gospel (De Lubac, Catholicism). The social doctrine of the Church (see the Teaching of the Popes). Love of neighbour (the Gospel, the Second Commandment, and even the New Commandment).
It is easy to fall into this trap! Is it a trap? Yes. And few will say so! Mother Teresa herself, however, did say it. When she founded her religious order, she did not say: let us do only this. She did not say: let us do this above all, for there is Christ, and we must go to Christ. Often, Saint Vincent de Paul’s saying, when he founded the Daughters of Charity—“leaving God (prayer) for God (the poor at the door)”—is rightly interpreted as a strong argument in favour of prioritising the poor, for there is God! and that is the priority!
Let us return to Mother Teresa. When she founded her religious order, following an intuition or a pressing call from Christ—I thirst, I am among these poorest of the poor, come and be my light among them—she determined that her sisters would be religious, and not just in name: with a deep life of prayer. They would have not less than two hours of prayer, on top of everything that religious normally have (Mass, Divine Office, Rosary, etc.)! Was she thinking of the other Mother Teresa, the one of Ávila, who also required her nuns to have two hours of silent prayer? It is quite likely—historians must be the ones to say. Why then, if one must leave God for God, maintain this rigorous demand of two hours of silent prayer (Adoration, etc.)? Here, then, is perhaps the door through which we may glimpse the difference. She puts it clearly in a famous letter: if you do not have a living relationship with Christ, all this is worth nothing. Let us read again her Varanasi Letter:
“I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus — one to one — you and Jesus alone. We may spend time in chapel — but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how he looks at you with love? Do you really know the living Jesus — not from books but from being with him in your heart? Have you heard the loving words he speaks to you?
Ask for the grace; he is longing to give it. Until you can hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will not be able to hear him saying, “I thirst” in the hearts of the poor. Never give up this daily intimate contact with Jesus as the real living person — not just the idea. How can we last even one day without hearing Jesus say, “I love you” — impossible. Our soul needs that as much as the body needs to breathe the air. If not, prayer is dead — meditation only thinking. Jesus wants you each to hear him — speaking in the silence of your heart.
Be careful of all that can block that personal contact with the living Jesus.”
“The devil may try to use the hurts of life, and sometimes our own mistakes — to make you feel it is impossible that Jesus really loves you, is really cleaving to you. This is a danger for all of us. And so sad, because it is completely opposite of what Jesus is really wanting, waiting to tell you. Not only that he loves you, but even more — he longs for you. He misses you when you don’t come close. He thirsts for you. He loves you always, even when you don’t feel worthy.When not accepted by others, even by yourself sometimes — he is the one who always accepts you. My children, you don’t have to be different for Jesus to love you. Only believe — you are precious to him. Bring all you are suffering to his feet — only open your heart to be loved by him as you are. He will do the rest.” (Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
This reminds us of a profound truth: Mother Teresa did not receive her call from Christ to go to the poorest of the poor at the beginning of her vocation, or at the start of her spiritual journey, or at the beginning of her Christian life, when she was still young. No! Here again, historians and theologians will need to show us this more clearly. She received this call when she was already deeply spiritually engaged and after several years of fervent religious life. She had already reached deep levels of union with Christ. The equation changes completely! In fact: who can bear such a call if not deeply united to Christ? Who can sustain such a life and such a way of giving oneself without being profoundly rooted in Christ?
This, then, is the foundation of our hope: we are seized by Christ, and he is our hope, and it is with him and through him that we have learnt to love. This presupposes a spiritual journey.
To reduce the Christian life to the second commandment, or worse, in the name of the new commandment, to invert the commandments—or worse still, to abolish the first commandment—destroys Christian hope at its root.
Christian hope, theological hope, whether we like it or not, is quite simply theological! It requires a real formation in the spiritual life, real spiritual growth; it is not just a fine human idea. Fine human ideas are necessary, but such an idea—the true Christian charity—is not mere altruism; it is a path of transformation that leads to the very charity of Christ: love one another as I have loved you! It is not simply love one another, full stop; it is as I have loved you, that is to say, we must embark on the adventure of learning from Christ how to love through him and with him. This implies growth; this implies seeking to be united to him. Certainly, to be united to him we must learn to love our neighbour and grow in this capacity to love—that is, in true charity. The secret of the Gospel is not the love of neighbour; the secret of the Gospel is to discover Christ and to enter his School in order to learn how to love—not with our poor capacities, but with the Holy Spirit who transforms us and pours into us his divine Charity. It is the Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Risen One, who elevates our capacity to love, purifies it, and makes it like that of Christ. It is Christ living in us who opens our eyes to Christ living in our neighbour. And within “the neighbour” there is also a whole path of growth, culminating in the obscurity of the neighbour who is the most forsaken among the forsaken. And in this “obscurity” too there are unfathomable depths, for the human being himself has unfathomable depths that the Lord came to enlighten, to save, and to unite to himself.
To think we know the needs of our neighbour based solely on material needs is reductive. Christ did not come to preach or to save in a material way! Otherwise, they would have made him king! The work of salvation reaches into the very depths of the human being—his darkness, his distance from God…
Let us truly consider the real stakes of Christ’s message. Let us reflect seriously on true Hope, on its very nature. Let us carefully consider “where we are going,” what our goal is, what our vision of the Christian life is! Let us think about the meaning of our life. Let us dig more deeply into specifically Christian Hope, so as to be truly lifted by the grace of Christ, to be carried towards Him, to seek Him, to find Him, and to seek Him anew—so that the horizon of true theological hope may be revealed to us. Let us study the path of specifically Christian spiritual growth.