St. Thomas Aquino
The wise person honors the intellect because, among human realities, it is the one to which God reserves the most intense love. We must, however, invoke God to "penetrate the darkness of our intellect with a ray of its light, moving away from us the double darkness in the midst of which we were born, those of sin and ignorance". And of all our thinking and acting, God "inspires the beginning, guides progress and crowns the end".
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What is hope
Hope as passion is distinguished from desire, since the latter has as its object the good and the appetite of the senses, while hope has as its object a future good, arduous and possible and because it refers to the good, it belongs to the faculty of those who desire heartily rather than that of learning.
Object of hope is a future good, arduous and possible. Hope from love and from the good that is hoped for. Hope rejoices in the work, because it favors the natural inclination.
Hope is a virtue. Virtue, because it has as its object God and by Him, desires the necessary help to walk safely for the impervious paths of the world and also to reach a future of glory. Virtue, because it conforms to the human acts the superior and perfect rule of God.
The object of hope because it is God on which it relies and hopes for an infinite good, is eternal bliss. Eternal bliss, each hopes for itself, but by charity it is good to hope for others too.
Hope, having as its object God, supreme good, is theological virtue. Some hope only in men, but from them they can only get secondary help.
Hope, since it has as its object God as the principle of knowledge and truth, is distinguished from the faith and charity that have as object God as a term of union for the soul, through love.
Hope confirms faith, but does not exist before faith, because it makes us know God in whom we hope.
Charity comes after hope, but on its part it perfects it.
Hope and its subject
Hope resides in the will, which is a rational appetite; it has as its object the good and therefore concerns, as we have seen, the faculty of those who desirously desire one thing, namely the divine good.
There is no hope left in the blessed because for them God is no longer a future but a present good. The damned cannot have it because now that they know the Supreme Good, they cannot reach it. Hope, on the other hand, is in the purging souls who have not yet reached God, but know that it will be their future.
In the militant Church, hope rises to certainty, because it proceeds from faith and perfect charity.
