On Hope

Hope is the last thing in the box. When all misfortunes are released, hope remains. Whether this was irony of the Greeks, or inspiration, is ambiguous. Yet hope is even a virtue: desire and expectation that good will arise. I wonder, though, if expectation is quite the word.

            We may hope the Earth remains when the nations have raged furiously together; that preservation of heath may become a masterpiece, an art form; that love and beauty shine out when ugliness and hate dissolve. Are these results we expect?

            Hope against hope, or beyond hope, suggests the uneasy relationship between desire and expectation. The Paul of Romans first finds belief in hope a virtue: belief in what you hope for. Without hope, which of the other virtues would follow? Hope in justice, hope lending courage, hope restraining excess and promoting wisdom: indeed, hope as wisdom under pressure.

            That thing looked for is the province of hope; it’s strongest in danger, for the comfortable complacent mind desires without need of hope. As a theological virtue, hope of eternity, divinity, confidence in salvation is given: despair is not advised. Yet all may practice hope: it’s the strength of ordinary sinners, in all circumstances