Hope: A Theological Virtue

The Theological Virtues

We live in a complex and messy world. There is racism, wars and invasions, a changing climate, a cost-of-living crisis, and violence within homes. More than ever, people are looking for hope. As followers of Jesus, we believe that Jesus is the hope in this complex and messy world.

That’s why the Anglican Church of Australia is embarking on a daring “Hope25” project to intentionally reach out to the world with the hope of Jesus from Easter Day to Pentecost in 2025.

From the Anglican Focus news site of Southern Queensland.

Faith, Hope and Charity

There are three Theological Virtues gifted to us by God, given so that we can attune ourselves to his divine will.  These virtues enable us to participate in the life of the Blessed Trinity.  This Trinitarian life into which we are invited provides us with the foundation from which our entire moral life as Christians flows.  From these, all other virtues find life. These virtues are gifts freely given to us by God, and it is up to us to decide whether we want to accept and use them as God desires. Those three Theological Virtues are Faith, Hope, and Charity.

FAITH

Faith is a great deal more than a mere collection of creeds.   Faith is the virtue that enables us to believe in God in the first place, and to believe and live out in our lives all He has revealed to us as Truth.  This is because He Himself is Truth… In John 14:6, Jesus states, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. By accepting that God has revealed Himself to us through His Word, the Word incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, we find ourselves caught up in the Living God. 

 We also acknowledge the Truth that resides in everything Jesus revealed to us through His words and actions. This faith compels us to turn our lives over to Him and act accordingly, manifesting our faith in the way we live… James 2:17-18…If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? 17So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead. 18But someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.… There is no faith without works, as authentic faith necessarily calls us to action. As Christians we also believe that God is revealing Himself through the Church He called into being.

Faith calls forth a response in the hearts of the individual believers and at the same time, a missionary response within the community of faith. We must first be able to find God in the solitude of our hearts and participate in an intimate relationship and love with Him there. As individuals, we can seek God out in the truth of His revelation by

·       reading, studying, and asking questions.

·       We can seek Him out in the beauty of nature, art, and music.

·       We can find Him in the goodness of the world through the observation or participation in the good works we see being done all around us.

 It is our participation in these things that enables faith to take root and gives us the assurance of God’s existence.  Faith leads us into an intimate relationship with God and allows us to interact with him on an individual and deeply personal level.

Faith, however, cannot exist alone and survive without a communal component as well. It exists to be shared.  As members of the Body of Christ, we must collaborate with Christ’s mission to take the Good News of the Kingdom of God to the very ends of the earth.  To all people, every tribe and race, people and nation. 

Faith draws us into worshipping God with our brothers and sisters in faith, in the communal liturgy of the Church.  

 Faith reassures us of our participation in the Communion of Saints, those faithful disciples of Christ who have died and have gone before us marked by the sign of faith. It is through our participation in a community formed by faith and enlivened by hope that we find ourselves living in an atmosphere where our faith is nurtured, where we are supported in the call to obedience, and we hold ourselves accountable to one another and the Church which He created.

This intimacy between God and humanity is expressed through faith.  To be authentic, faith requires action. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20).   In our imitating of Jesus Christ by loving our neighbour, we become living witnesses to the Kingdom he inaugurated and at the same time proclaim the love of God for all, the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life. 

Hope

Christian Hope has nothing in common with how the secular world understands it:  "I wish such and such would happen".

· Christian Hope is the virtue by which we desire and strive to achieve all that God has destined for us. 

· Christian Hope offers us the opportunity to live in the Joy poured out into the hearts of those who live in the Kingdom of God.

· Christian Hope opens up for us a vision of the eternal life guaranteed for us by the saving works of Jesus Christ.

When everything else is going wrong all around us on Earth, it is hope that keeps us focused on the eternal goal beyond this life. It enables us to trust in all of Christ’s promises.

The gift of Hope shapes the ways in which we respond to the commitments we made at the time of our baptisms, the way we live out our common responsibilities as members of the Body of Christ. 

As we work to shape our lives in holiness in response to God’s living Word, it is Hope that opens up for the future glory that is ours, a glory that transcends even the worst and darkest of the realities that assail us.  The virtue of hope guarantees for us that there is something better ahead that God is greater than our darkest fears.

 It is the virtue of Hope that empowers us to persevere in faithfulness, enabling us to tackle with confidence the obstacles and trials that come our way as we pursue our pilgrimage of faith. Hope gives us the ability to do God’s will even when it is hard because we know that God’s abundance blessings are ours in the carrying out of his will.

When circumstances or sufferings tempt us toward despair, it is the virtue of hope that fights against our temptation. We were not made to suffer or despair because those are not of God or His goodness. So, hope changes us and gives us a new perspective. Our end is not here on this earth but is, instead in heaven where there is no suffering or despair. It is a perfection of the virtue of hope which caused the Saints to express sheer joy amidst their sufferings, and it is what we are called to as well.

Charity

Charity, (love) is the virtue that allows us to obey the two greatest commandments revealed by Jesus: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments (Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:29-31). These “new” commandments revealed to us by Jesus in his teaching do not abolish the Ten Commandments.  These “new” commandments fulfil them and open up for us their meaning in the mind of God.  As children of God, we are not called to follow the Ten Commandments or any of the 613 divine laws blindly or to live under them as meaningless rules.

 We are called to obey them precisely because we love God above all things and we love others above ourselves. We obey them because they are expressions of the divine will, they are God’s way of ensuring we live as we were created to be living and called to be living.

When we act in love, or charity, we are following the old law, but that old law has a new meaning, a deeper meaning in Christ Jesus.   Charity is the highest virtue because every other virtue manifested in our lives is necessarily driven by charity, either toward God or toward our neighbour.

Authentic Gospel love begins with an acknowledgement that God loves us, that the entire creation manifests this divine outward flowing love.  This Kingdom love in turn flows back into the world, bringing with it light and life.

Gospel love embraces everyone and everything just as Jesus loved and embraced all he encountered. Jesus-crucified is the perfect example of this authentic love and whenever we have any questions about how to act in charity, all we need to do is gaze upon a crucifix. Jesus put our ultimate well-being ahead of his own immediate well-being, suffering so that we might be saved from our own sins.

Love is a choice. It is always upon us to choose to love when other responses seem to be more satisfying or reasonable.  Christian love does not depend on the way we feel about another person or the circumstances in which we find ourselves interacting with others.  In such situations, love can take on heroic proportions, for it demands we reach out in love even to those we despise, or fear, we do not understand or simply do not want to have anything to do with.   Regardless of how we feel or don’t feel in a particular situation, Christians must willingly choose a loving response toward the other person.  Choosing charity and love when it is difficult or undeserved is what we are called to do in the practice of this virtue and, while extremely fruitful, it is nearly always difficult to live fully.  

Love is not always humanly possible and so we turn to rely on divine grace to increase our capacity to love and to share the divine love we have experienced in our own lives with those who are empty.  In such moments we turn to God in prayer that he may increase our capacity for true and authentic charity, that we may live more closely in accordance with his will for us and his desire for the salvation of all. 

HOPE2025 provides us with an invitation to explore ways in which we can more readily and more generously open our hearts to others in the manner of Jesus.  He has provided us with a witness to the meaning of true love, a love that included his death on the cross.  There is little doubt that this will be demanding, that it will call us beyond our usual comfort zones and even threaten our sense of wellbeing.   The unconditional, all-embracing love that is characteristic of the Kingdom of God becomes a reality with the coming together of the Theological Virtues of faith, hope, and charity. In opening ourselves up to the movement of the Holy Spirit, these virtues increase within us, and the light of God’s Love shines even more brightly in the world and the darkness of sin is dispelled.  God-in-us overcomes all the Prince of darkness seeks to achieve through his evil Machiavellian ways.

A HOPE2025 Prayer:

God of Hope,

you call on us to be your witnesses in this uncertain world;

by your Spirit awaken in us, a true vision of your kingdom,

a greater certainty of our salvation, and

a deeper dedication to your service;

that through our words and actions

the same Spirit may bring many who are lost to be found,

and for them to celebrate the hope

that we can only have in Jesus Christ,

in whose name we pray. Amen.

Bishop Michael Hough                                                                               April 2025