Is Your Hope Manly or Wimpy?

The theological virtues are infused into our souls at the time of our baptism. In other words, if you are baptized, you have the virtue of hope. Hope is a supernatural virtue, which means that through God’s grace it strengthens our ability to have a relationship with God and to participate in His divine life. The definition of Hope is the theological virtue by which we trust that God will be true to His promises, especially the promise of salvation for those who love Him.

Unlike the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the theological virtues are dependent on our actions. The grace that comes with the theological virtue of hope offers us strength and help to build trust in God, but actually trusting is an act of our human will (elevated by grace).

Exercise the Muscle

Just as we receive our muscles as part of our natural birth, so we receive the theological virtues as part of our supernatural birth. Just as the strength of our muscles depends on how healthy we keep our bodies and how much we exercise, so the strength of our theological virtues depends on how healthy we keep our souls and how well we exercise our spiritual lives. So, how do we keep our Hope muscle strong?

• Keep your soul healthy by going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation often
• Feed your soul well by frequently going to Mass and receiving the Holy Eucharist (this is also intimacy with Christ, which builds our trust in Him)
• Exercise your spiritual muscle by daily prayer and acts of devotion
• Practice trusting God with your daily needs – practice not worrying so much about things not going your way and instead pray that God’s will be done in every circumstance
• Get excited about going to Heaven, and about bringing about the Kingdom of God in this world until it is fulfilled in Heaven

Hope – the Balance Between Extremes

Virtues often point the way toward balance between extremes, and Hope is no exception. There are two sins against Hope – two ways to “miss the mark.”

• The sin of presumption – the error of assuming that you will go to Heaven with no effort on your part. This error is often expressed in terms of a loving God who would never send anyone to Hell. It misses the fact that Heaven is a relationship, and that a loving God would not force anyone into a relationship who doesn’t choose it. We are saved by grace, but we also have to cooperate with that grace in order to grow in our love for God.
• The sin of despair – the error of assuming that you could never get to Heaven. This is usually the assumption that you have sinned so badly that God would never forgive you, or that you are not worthy of God’s love. This error opposes the truth that God created you to love Him and to be loved by Him. He wants you to be a member of His family. All He requires is that you seek His forgiveness, accept His grace, and walk with Him in grace (cooperate with grace to grow in love). The only unforgivable sin — blasphemy against the Holy Spirit – is the persistent refusal to do this.

Hope is the virtue of recognizing God’s grace and forgiveness, and being willing to do our part in the relationship in order to know and love God more.

“Manly” Hope is for Women Too!

A virtue is the adoption of a good quality through the habitual choice of good actions. Natural virtues are good qualities that makes us more powerfully human (the image of God). Supernatural virtues are good qualities that help us to more perfectly participate in God’s divine life (the likeness of God). All virtues help bring us to our human destiny – union with God. In that sense, they are “manly” virtues – they help us to be what we are called to be as human beings.

Many Catholics cling to a wimpy version of Hope. This may be described by the proper use of the word — I hope I get to Heaven (but I’m not really sure I’m going to). So, what is a strong, “manly” hope? A strong Hope is actually expressed as a burning desire to be united to God. It is yearning for Heaven and being willing to sacrifice everything on earth, including our very lives, to get there.

What is Your Vision of Heaven

Perhaps one reason so many of us are stuck with a weak version of hope is that we have a weak vision of Heaven. What do you think Heaven will be like? Many people have never thought about it. If we have thought about it, perhaps we are influenced by the cheap Hollywood version of Heaven – angels sitting on clouds, strumming harps and smiling all the time. Perhaps we misunderstand the phrase “rest in peace” and think of Heaven as an eternal snooze. Perhaps we misunderstand the “eternal liturgy” and think of it as an endless church service. All of these are weak visions of Heaven. The doctors of the Church and the great mystics set us straight with a few key reminders.

Heaven is Primarily a Relationship

Heaven is not simply a reward for doing good, where things are pleasant and peaceful for all eternity. Heaven is, by definition, an eternal relationship with God. In Heaven, we will experience God in an intimate way through soul-to-Soul contact. Even the Holy Eucharist, the greatest intimacy we have with God in this world, is described by Saint Thomas Aquinas as experiencing God “through a veil.” In Heaven we will be fully and perfectly known and loved by God — all the time, for all eternity.

Of course, we are not saved as individuals. When we are baptized, we are made members of God’s family. The Church family does not cease to exist in Heaven. It is fulfilled. Therefore, we will have an intimate, loving relationship with each other as well as with God. I often get the question, “will we recognize our loved ones in Heaven”? The answer is an unqualified yes! We will not only recognize them, but know them more perfectly than is possible on earth.

Heaven is the Fulfillment of Human Nature, Not Its Negation

We will not be angels in Heaven. We will be human beings. After the Final Judgment, the fulfillment of God’s act of redemption, our bodies will be resurrected and re-united to our spirits. God will restore human life to what He intended it to be for Adam & Eve, before the Fall. Therefore . . .

• Heaven will be a place, not just a state of being (although the primary definition of Heaven will always be a relationship with God)
• We will enjoy physical expressions of God’s love through physical goods, as we do on earth through God’s goodness found in Creation.
• We will live in each other’s physical presence as well as having a deeper spiritual connection to each other
• Our bodies will be a perfect expression of our souls – they will be part of our intimate union with each other

But it Will Be Even Better!

However, our human nature will not only be restored; it will be glorified! Grace gives us a share in God’s divine nature, making intimacy with God possible. This share in God’s divine nature will be expressed through our human nature. We catch a glimpse of what this will be like in our Lord’s resurrected body. Jesus appeared to his disciples in a glorified state, even able to appear to them despite closed and locked doors. Perhaps even Jesus’ Transfiguration gives us a hint of what we will be like with divine nature being expressed through our human nature.

Understanding “Eternal Rest”

One reason we can sometimes have a weak vision of Heaven is that we misunderstand the Church’s use of the term “rest.” During funerals, we pray, “Eternal rest grant unto him/her, oh Lord, and let your perpetual light shine upon him/her.”

This prayer is related to the priest’s line during Mass, “Protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our savior, Jesus Christ.” I have heard a number of priests interject the term “needless anxiety” into this phrase, or add their own interpretation, such as, “Protect us from all worry, anger, hatred and anxiety . . .” These changes in the words of the Mass stem from a theological misunderstanding of this phrase. The anxiety that the words of the Mass is referring to is meant to be specifically the anxiety against the virtue of Hope. This is the anxiety caused by sin that makes us question our unity with God – the anxiety caused by not being in a state of grace. To ask for protection against anxiety in this context is to ask for God’s help to conquer sin and to stay within His grace.

Likewise, when we pray that a deceased loved one will receive perpetual “rest,” we are not wishing for them an eternal nap, or even an eternal retirement! We are wishing for them that they will pass through Purgatory and into Heaven. The state of peace for which we pray is specifically the peace of being in God’s presence and no longer needing to strive for holiness against our fallen human nature.

The point here is that Heaven will not be a place of “rest” in the sense of inactivity! It will not be a pleasant nap or an inactive retirement. It will indeed be a place where human activity finds its fullest meaning and purpose in the eternal glorification of God. We will be active participants in the Divine Nature, and we will actively participate in full and glorified human life.

Heaven will be anything but boring!

Quite a bit of speculation about what Heaven will be like is possible through the understanding that Heaven is the fulfillment and glorification of human nature. Experiences of Heaven by certain mystics helps us sharpen our vision of what Heaven will be like. However, this is only the beginning of our understanding of Heaven. No matter what we speculate or imagine, one thing is certain. Heaven will be better! As Saint Paul says, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard: neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Let your Hope be exercised by this exciting vision of Heaven. Don’t let yourself be lulled into wimpy Hope by a weak vision of what Heaven will be like. Heaven will be better than anything our earthly existence can offer us. An eternal relationship with God in which we will receive God’s love spiritually and physically and live in God’s family with each other, sharing for all eternity in God’s goodness, is worth thirsting for.