Hope

Gospel

Hope in the Gospel

The message that Jesus leaves before the last will of the Father is fulfilled in his earthly life, is a message of hope because "Nothing we have to fear, we must flee, because he will always be with us, every day of our life. " And Peter, the Apostle through whom Jesus "built" his descendants, affirms this concept on several occasions: life will always bring joy but also suffering, peace but also torments, strength but also weaknesses. The Apostle encourages us not to lose heart, not to respond badly to evil; just in times of greater sadness and discouragement.

Of physical discomfort or of lower torment that each of us is called to respond by blessing (saying well). "Who can hurt you, if you are fervent in goodness? And if you also had to suffer for righteousness, blessed are you! Do not be dismayed for fear of them, upset you, but worship the Lord, Christ, in your hearts, ready always to respond to anyone who asks you for the reason of the hope that is in you".
(1 Pt 3, 13-15).

To entrust oneself totally to the Lord brings with him an infinite hope. A hope so deeply rooted as to amaze even that it would do us harm, so reassuring that it would baffle anyone. In the Scriptures there is a great insistence on this indispensable covenant with God as the source of hope. In fact it is faith in God that feeds the expectation of a world that can not disappoint our hopes. Hope therefore translates into a promise, a new possibility for life itself, feasible and implemented from the very moment when total trust is placed in the Promising One.

With the advent of Jesus Christ these perspectives are rooted and are realized in the present. They can become a reality right away because "all the promises of God in him have become" yes. "This is why our" Amen "rises to God for his glory through him: it is God himself who confirms us, together with you, in Christ"
(2 Cor 1: 20-21).

Even if one day there will only be joy, the sufferings present remain. Paul teaches us: "tribulation produces patience, patience is a proven virtue and virtue proves hope, then hope does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us".(Rom 5: 3-5). To hope means to live day after day the divine love bestowed on us by the Holy Spirit, from whom we can draw the Holy Gifts.

Living in hope does not mean to wait passively for a better world, but to draw from the teaching of Jesus the strength to live in an ethical and moral way, according to the will of the Father. Each of us can accept the daily difficulties and at the same time act for the common good, this will be the seed that will improve the whole society that now languishes in sin.

"We exhort you, brethren: correct the unruly, comfort the pusillanimous, support the weak, be patient with everyone, beware of hurting someone, but always seek the good among you and everyone: always be happy, pray incessantly, in all things give thanks [...] Do not extinguish the Spirit, do not despise the prophecies, examine everything, hold on to what is good, abstain from all kinds of evil The God of peace sanctify you to perfection".
(1 Thessalonians 5, 14-23).

Once again it is Paul who suggests what our attitude must be in daily living; all the councils are about correcting us from what would alienate us most from the teaching of Christ; none of them is chosen by chance, just as the formula he used for the final blessing is not random; he addresses himself to the "God of peace" because no one more than Paul knows to what torment he brings life far from those precepts, in which agitation, dissatisfaction, despair can easily fall. And it is no accident that Paul is still insisting on "commitment to faith", on "industriousness in love" and on "constant hope in our Lord Jesus Christ".
(1 Thess 1, 3).