True Hope Cultivates Patience whereas False Hope Leads to Despair

One comes to a point of despair when there is no hope. When one is battered relentlessly with grim and life threatening situations, it is only human to succumb to fatigue. This week, even the great prophet Elijah is burnt-out and is not able to go on. He becomes despondent and prays for death (1 Kings 19: 4-8).

 Elijah tried many great things to bring the lost people of Israel back to God from the worship of Baal but to no avail.  He sent drought to Israel for three years, challenged and defeated the prophets of the pagan Gods and opened the heavens for rain. His efforts seemed futile because the people did not change. Instead, Elijah had to flee for his life after being threatened by Jezebel.  He said “I have had enough”.

Many of us probably feel the same with the current situation- more chaos, hardly any repentance, statistics that paint a bleak setting, uncertainty, fear and hopelessness.

In the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, JRR Tolkien differentiates true hope as the quest to carry on and false hope as that beguiles and leads to despair. False hope is one based on optimism, which expects everything to turn out well, and despair “is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.”

Pope Francis tells us that “our hope is not based on human reasoning, predictions and assurances,” but rather one that is “rooted in faith and God’s promise”. Thus true hope arises “where there is no more hope, where there is nothing left to hope for”. https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/03/pope-god-promises-impossible-asks-people-hope/

True hope is thus

“Oft hope is born when all is forlorn” (JRR Tolkien).

This is because when everything seems dark and insurmountable-that is when true hope is ignited within us.

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. (CCC 1817)

Elijah’s story does not end in despair because God sends his angel to restore his strength. He provides food for nourishment and ensures that Elijah has the physical strength to carry on.

Pope Benedict XVI in his second encyclical explained that Christian hope or true hope is an encounter with the living God- a hope that transforms life from within.  True hope thus sustains one to carry on despite the unchanging external circumstance. True hope cultivates patience to embrace suffering.

Hope is practised through the virtue of patience, which continues to do good even in the face of apparent failure, and through the virtue of humility, which accepts God’s mystery and trusts him even at times of darkness. ( Pope Beedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est)

Jesus tells us, he is the living bread from heaven (Jn 6: 41-51), the source of spiritual nourishment we need to carry on in our long-suffering. There is only one price to be paid as explained by Pope Francis, “opening your heart. Open your hearts and God’s power will carry you forward. He will do miraculous things and he will teach you what hope is.” “open your heart to faith and he will do the rest,” https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/03/pope-god-promises-impossible-asks-people-hope/