Reflections on Hope

It has been said that a person can live some weeks without food, some days without water, some minutes without air – but not one moment without hope.

Hope is as necessary to man as food, drink or air, if not more so. Without hope, man cannot live. If a person loses all hope and can no longer see anything good in tomorrow, nothing to expect or long for, nothing to look forward to, what is left? Unless there is even a small ray of light to live for, man becomes depressed, loses his courage and his will to live. His days will be hard work and his nights restless. Anxiety can even take over his mind to the point where he ends up taking his own life.

I can only imagine how traumatising it is for people to live under war. Even now, thousands of people are afraid of rockets, bombs and drones in many different places. Despite their fear, they have to rely on even a small hope, like a thin thread that makes them see tomorrow as worth living!

In the Finnish language, the word hope (toivo) is very close to the word wish (toive). There is only one letter difference between them. They are easy to confuse not only as words but also in terms of content. Hope helps you to move forward when everything seems difficult. Hope also sustains you when your wishes are not fulfilled and when the future looks hopeless. Hope is an attitude that sets a person in motion, to do something, while a wish is something that one waits for to happen or dreams about.

If I understand it right, the difference is clearer in English. Hope is a completely different word from wish. You don’t confuse them very easily. But these words have their own peculiarities, too. Both can be used as nouns and verbs. Hope can be a thing or something a person concentrates on and expects good things from. For example, when I rush to the train station at the last minute, I can say that my “last hope” to get on board is that also the train will be late. But if I say my “last wish” is that the train is late, it would sound like leaving a testament to the railway company!

I can also use the word hope as a verb. “I hope you understand what I am trying to say with this wisecrack.” Hope is something that keeps a person alive and moving, a wish is a dream that may never come true or something that is already gone and I can never get back. “I wish I hadn’t said that; I wish I hadn’t done what I did, I wish I had understood better.” I wish you well and hope you will have a good life!

In Christian theology, hope is one of the three main virtues, the so-called theological virtues. They are faith, hope and love, as derived from the words of St Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:13. ‘And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.’

‘The greatest of these is love.’ But didn’t I just say at the beginning that hope is the most necessary thing for a human being to stay alive? Is hope then the greatest of all, if its absence can lead a man to destroy his own life? What about the lack of love? A person who is left alone can find himself living without love. That is the fate of many people. But is love the greatest because it is the most necessary for a loving person him- or herself? Is it not rather because it is essential to all life together?

The relationship between the three theological virtues has been the subject of its own debates. The Lutheran Reformation, as is well known, opposed the scholastic idea that only love perfects faith by forming it from within: fides caritate formata. For Lutherans, this would mean founding salvation on man’s acts of love rather than on God’s gracious gift to the sinner received in faith. Luther placed everything on faith, for only faith can receive and own salvation. Therefore, it also gives man hope and frees him to show love to his neighbour.

Philipp Melanchthon writes in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession that whereas hope is focused on things to come, i.e. eternal life, faith is focused on both present and future things (IV, 312). The faith already receives in the present the forgiveness of sins promised by God, even though the promise is about eternal life in the future kingdom of God. Faith is the most important of the three theological virtues in Lutheranism. Faith includes in itself the other two, hope and love.

Faith is the foundation of Christian hope. The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, ‘Hoping against hope, Abraham believed that he would become the father of many nations.’ (Romans 4:18). In the Vulgate, the words hope and faith are used consecutively, with faith being directed to the promise made to Abraham: Contra spem in spem credidit ut fieret pater multarum gentium. But in the Apology, Melanchthon shortens the sentence so that faith takes the most important role and focuses on the hope of eternal life because of Christ:

‘Against these doubts Paul says (Romans 5:1), Being justified by faith, we have peace with God; we ought to be firmly convinced that for Christ’s sake righteousness and eternal life are granted us. And of Abraham he says (Romans 4:18), Against hope he believed in hope.’ (Apology IV, 320) Faith is not just believing something to be true, but owning and relying on the merit of Christ. In such faith, hope and love are also present, for Christ himself, with all his gifts, is present in the believer through faith.

Lutherans and Catholics reached sufficient agreement on justification when the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification was signed in 1999. It has subsequently been adopted by the world communions of Methodist, Anglican and Reformed churches respectively. The document states:

‘We confess together that sinners are justified by faith in the saving action of God in Christ. By the action of the Holy Spirit in baptism, they are granted the gift of salvation, which lays the basis for the whole Christian life. They place their trust in God’s gracious promise by justifying faith, which includes hope in God and love for him. Such a faith is active in love and thus the Christian cannot and should not remain without works. But whatever in the justified precedes or follows the free gift of faith is neither the basis of justification nor merits it.’ (25)

Faith and hope are beautifully linked in Hebrews 11:1: ‘Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’ This has been a difficult verse for Bible translators. It uses the Greek word HYPOSTASIS, which means substance. That is why it was translated into Latin est autem fides sperandorum substantia rerum. Luther thought that HYPOSTASIS here should be translated as firm confidence, Es ist aber der Glaube eine gewisse Zuversicht des, das man hoffet.

But faith is more than trust. It is the ’substance’ of what is desired, the very presence in the believer of what is desired. Hope always goes together with faith. Without faith in the future, there is no confidence in the time ahead and no hope for a better tomorrow. Likewise, without faith in God, who will one day rectify all wrongs, there is no hope that justice and mercy may also one day prevail among men.

He who believes in Christ will always have hope. No matter how dark the world is, he sees light in Christ. God is near to all those who feel they have been forsaken by him. This is precisely what God proved by the death of His Son on the cross. Jesus cried out in agony, ’My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ But at the same time, in the words of the Psalm 31:6, he also left himself in God’s hands: ’Father, into your hand I commend my spirit.’ Even in the midst of abandonment, Jesus was not without hope. His heavenly Father was present in the darkest hour.

In faith in Christ, hope always outweighs despair. In Christ, faith is always stronger than doubt and can sustain a person in moments of hopelessness. In Christ is also the hope for all the suffering people of the world.