The Fruit of the Ascension: Hope
The parting words of Jesus are known as The Great Commission. Before He returns to the Father, Jesus gives his apostles this directive: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matt 28:18-20). The Redemption of the world had been accomplished, but the work of Jesus upon earth was not yet finished. He has entrusted to us the continuation of His saving mission through our evangelization: all men and women need to hear the Good News of salvation. If we persevere in our discipleship, one day we will follow Jesus to Heaven and reign with Him. One day we will experience our fruition in God and our happiness will be complete. One day every knee will bow at the name of Jesus and all things will be restored in Him… but it is not this day. Thisday, we find ourselves still immersed in the turbulent drama of salvation, in the fray of the cosmic battle between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, waiting for the fulfillment of all that Jesus promised. That waiting demands Christian hope.
What is Christian hope? Christian hope is so much more than the contemporary buzzword “positive thinking” – the practice of focusing on the good in any given situation. Cultivating a positive attitude that concentrates on the bright side may promote one’s mental and emotional wellbeing, but so long as our thinking remains on the natural plane, this is not yet Christian hope – the virtue that unites us to God. In order to understand Christian hope, we need to answer the questions, “Who are we hoping in?” and “What are we hoping for?”
We are hoping in a Saviour who loves us passionately, and shed every drop of His Precious Blood to testify to His love. We are hoping in the One “was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mk 16:19), He who has been givenALL authority in heaven and on earth (Matt 28:18), so that nothing can happen to us apart from His permission. We are hoping in the all-wise and all-powerful God who works everything to the good of those who love Him (Rom 8:28). We are hoping not in ourselves, or in other people, but in the faithfulness of God who gives us the Holy Spirit to aid us in our weakness.
We are hoping for salvation, for eternal life, forour desire for happiness to be utterly sated in the possession of God in His heavenly Kingdom. Notice that the object of our hope is not this or that earthly outcome, though we may pray for these things and God may wish to grant them to us, especially if they help us obtain Heaven.
Herein lies the difference between positive thinking and Christian hope: The virtue of hope is oriented to a whole new world in which our deepest aspirations find their perfect fulfillment; and it is rooted in the Triune God, Who alone can get us there. Jesus returned to that world ahead of us to prepare a place for us: “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (Jn 14:2-3). Our Saviour wants us to live in this world as pilgrims of hope – the theme of this Jubilee Year – who know that we were not made for this world but for the Fatherland, and who await our true home with joyful expectation, in the filial confidence that grace will lead us there.
Christians should not be gloomy people. Christian hope fills us with an evangelical optimism – an outlook and response to the events of life in view of the Cross and Resurrection of our Saviour. Those who know Christ have far greater reason to “think positive” than our worldly-minded neighbours. In fact, the practice of Christian hope involves supernaturalized positive thinking – focusing on the ultimate good in any given situation, in the light of Divine Revelation. The one who hopes sees the Hand of God in everything – even in sufferings, hardships, disappointments, and failures – and has the assurance that all will ultimately be well because we are God’s and God is good. The one who hopes can say with St. Paul: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:35, 37-39).
