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| Carl A. Anderson |
Last November, Pope Benedict XVI issued his new encyclical on Christian hope, Spe Salvi. It begins with a passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans: “In hope we were saved” (8:24). St. Paul concludes the chapter with two related messages: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God” (8:28), and that wonderful passage, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life…nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:38).
The pope begins this encyclical with a dramatic scriptural context to discuss Christian hope, which he relates closely to the gift of faith. Together with his first encyclical on love and charity, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict has presented us with a comprehensive vision of the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. St. Paul saw these virtues as the basis of the Christian life and Pope Benedict’s first encyclicals remind us why.
In Spe Salvi, the pope tells us that “a distinguishing mark of Christians” is “the fact that they have a future: …they know…that their life will not end in emptiness” (2). Christians are capable of providing a bright witness to God’s plan for creation. This is especially important as contemporary society moves further away from God. Pope Benedict has long been concerned with the radical secularization that has emerged in Europe and is now emerging in North America.
He states in Spe Salvi that “The present-day crisis of faith is essentially a crisis of Christian hope” (17). The eclipse of God in society has come about in large part through the substitution of a “faith in progress” for authentic hope. The dream of “a new and perfect human community” has obscured God’s plan for creation and his work of redemption. “It is not science that redeems man,” writes the pope; rather, “man is redeemed by love” (26 ).
All alternative theories, philosophies or ideologies fall short and ultimately disappoint us. The pope mentions in particular both the French and Marxist revolutions, and he recalls that Jesus “did not bring a message of social revolution.” Jesus brought “something totally different…an encounter with the living God” (4 ).
In Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict presents the answer to the troubles of our times: “Man’s great, true hope which holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God – God who has loved us and continues to love us to the end” (27 ).
Man is not imprisoned within a mechanistic, soulless evolutionary pattern, the victim of impersonal forces of nature or lost within an endless cosmos. “We are not slaves of the universe,” writes the pope. We are free because “heaven is not empty” – there is one who loves us and who calls us by name (5 ).
The encyclical begins with these words: “Spe salvi facti sumus” – in hope we were saved. In the context of this hope, the pope admonishes us, “As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: how can I save myself? We should also ask: what can I do in order that others may be saved?” (48 ). The Christian life must be lived in community. Otherwise, how is a life of faith, hope and charity really possible?
A life filled with Christian hope leads naturally to something more: unity and fraternity. But Knights of Columbus know this already. As we begin a New Year, may we respond to the gift of this new encyclical with a renewed spirit of Christian hope, Christian unity and Christian witness.
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