Fifth in a Series

A criticism often made against some Christians is that their interest in the future, specifically in getting into heaven, makes it impossible for them to be real citizens of this world.

The criticism suggests that Christians will always have their eyes “on the prize” and passively allow all sorts of evil to continue on this earth because their real interest is in being saved.

Some secularists accuse Christians of neglecting the present for the sake of the future, of being preoccupied with the future life at the expense of the present life. Some secularists believe that whatever vision of the future a person has, that view of the future should enrich and nourish the person’s present existence.

I agree that our vision of the future should enrich and benefit us in living in the present but how does our hope do this? Doesn’t hope which is focused on the future necessarily cause us to neglect the present with all its distractions and disappointments?

I think Pope Benedict’s encyclical on hope, “Spe Salvi” is a strong statement about how Christians should view the future and what its relation to the present should be. Nothing that the pope writes in the letter suggests or encourages a withdrawal from the present world. The Holy Father writes the following:

“Faith is not merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent: it gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting for, and this present reality constitutes for us a ‘proof’ of the things that are still unseen. Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a ‘not-yet.’ The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future.”

Discussing what it is that faith gives us, why it is that hope ties the future to the present, the pope writes the following:

“It is the expectation of things to come from the perspective of a present that is already given. It is a looking-forward in Christ’s presence, with Christ who is present, to the perfecting of his Body, to his definitive coming.”

Hope for the future is based on the presence of Christ in our lives in the present. It is our faith in Christ’s living presence with us now that frees us to hope for fulfillment in the future. The presence of Christ liberates us so that we can be people of hope, people who trust in the ultimate victory of the Risen Lord. This looking toward the ultimate victory when there will be no more sin or death, when our loving God will wipe every tear from our eyes, not only should not distract us from the problems and suffering of people but should immerse us more deeply in those problems, should move us to be more loving, caring and active in serving people.

The caricature of the follower of Christ as withdrawn from the world, as immune from the problems of the world should be just that, a caricature. Wherever and whenever people are suffering, followers of the crucified God should care and should be present in any way that they can. No one of us can do everything but each one of us can do something.

Belief in the future, belief in the promises of Christ should not make us disinterested observers of the contemporary world but rather should remind us that those who are suffering are people for whom Christ died. The hope that animates us, though deeply personal, should never be private or turn us away from those in need.

In his novel “The Plague,” atheistic existentialist philosopher Albert Camus portrays a priest as less interested than an atheistic doctor in the suffering of people. The presumption in the story seems to be that faith and hope, because they point to a life beyond the grave, weaken an individual’s interest in persons who are suffering in this world.

Rather the opposite should be the case. Faith and hope should increase our sense of the preciousness and value of persons and should call us to a love of people even deeper than the love motivated by an atheistic vision. The human mind, unaided by faith and hope, can discover that persons have a special value; the mind enlightened by faith and hope can grasp that the value of persons is expressed by the great price paid for their salvation, namely the death and resurrection of Jesus.

I am hoping that the Holy Father’s reflections on hope will be read by many.