Hope, a gift of the Spirit, enables the Christian to persevere and is even an initiation into the full participation in the glory of God

Continuing his series of catecheses on the Holy Spirit, during the General Audience on 3 July the Holy Father spoke about the role of the third Person of the Trinity as the pledge of eschatological hope and source of final perseverance, based on the opening reading from Ephesians.

1. Among the greatest gifts which St Paul tells the Corinthians are lasting ones, there is hope (cf. 1 Cor 12:31). It has a basic role in Christian life, as do faith and charity, although "the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13). It is clear that hope is not to be understood in its limited meaning as a particular, extraordinary gift granted to some people for the good of the community, but rather as a gift of theHoly Spirit offered to each person who is open to Christ in faith. Special attention should be given to this gift, especially in our day in which many people, including quite a few Christians, are floundering in the illusion and myth of an unlimited capacity for self-redemption and self-fulfilment and the temptation to pessimism from the experience of frequent disappointment and defeat.

Although it includes the psychological motivation of the soul which strives towards the more difficult good, Christian hope is found on the supernatural level of the virtues deriving from grace (cf. Summa Theol., III, q.7, a.2), as a gift which God makes to believers, in the order of eternal life. It is, therefore, a virtue which is typical of homo viator, of the person on pilgrimage who, although he knows God and his eternal vocation through faith, has not yet arrived at the vision of him. In a certain sense, hope makes him reach "into the interior, beyond the veil", as the Letter to the Hebrews says (Heb 6:19).

2. The eschatological dimension, however, is essential to this virtue. On Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to fulfil the promises included in the proclamation of salvation, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: "Exalted at the right hand of God, (Jesus) received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and poured it forth" (Acts 2:33). However, this fulfilment of the promise is projected upon the whole of history, even to the last days. For those who possess faith in the word of God which resounds in Christ and was preached by the apostles, eschatology has begun to be fulfilled, or we could say rather that it is already fulfilled in its fundamental aspect: the presence of the Holy Spirit in human history which, from the Pentecost event takes its meaning and vital impulse on the plane of the divine goal of every person and all humanity. While the hope of the Old Testament had as its foundation the promise of God's lasting presence and providence, which would be manifested in the Messiah, in the New Testament hope, through the grace of the Holy Spirit which is its origin, already gives us an anticipation of future glory.

In this perspective St Paul affirms that the gift of the Holy Spirit is like a pledge of future happiness. To the Ephesians he writes: "You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God's possession, to the praise of his glory" (Eph 1:13-14); cf. 4:30; 2 Cor1:22).

We could say that in Christian life on earth it is like an initiation into full participation in the glory of God; and it is the Holy Spirit who constitutes the guarantee for achieving the fullness of eternal life when, by means of the effects of the redemption all the other effects of sin will also be overcome, such as suffering and death. Thus Christian hope is not only a guarantee, but also an anticipation of the future reality.

3. The hope which the Holy Spirit enkindles in the Christian also has a dimension which could be called cosmic, including heaven and earth, that which can be experienced, and that which is beyond our reach, the known and the unknown. "Creation itself", St Paul writes, "awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labour pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies" (Rom 8:19-23). The Christian, conscious of man's vocation and the destiny of the universe, understands the meaning of this universal gestation and learns that it is a question of divine adoption for all people, who are called to participate in the glory of God which is reflected in all creation. The Christian knows that he already possesses the first fruits of this adoption in the Holy Spirit, and therefore looks with confident hope to the destiny of the world, even amid the tribulations of time.

Enlightened by faith, he understands the meaning and almost experiences the truth of the subsequent passage from the Letter to the Romans where the apostle assures us that "the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God's will" (Rom 8:26-28).

4. As you see, it is in the depths of the soul that the Holy Spirit lives, prays and works, making us enter more and more fully into the perspective of the ultimate end, God, conforming our whole lives to his saving plan. Therefore he himself helps us pray, praying in us, with the sentiments and words of God's children (cf. Rom 8:15, 26-27; Gal 4:6; Eph 6:18), in intimate spiritual and eschatological relationship with Christ who sits at the right hand of God, where he intercedes for us (cf. Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 1 Jn 2:1). Thus he saves us from illusion and from false paths of salvation while, moving hearts towards the authentic purpose of life, he frees us from pessimism and nihilism, temptations which are especially insidious for those who do not begin with the premise of faith, or at least with the sincere desire to search for God.

We must add that the body is also involved in this dimension of hope which the Holy Spirit gives to the human being. St Paul also tells us so: "If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you" (Rom 8:11; cf. 2 Cor 5:5). Let us be content for now with having considered this aspect of hope in its personal anthropological dimension as well as in its cosmic and eschatological plane, which we should return to in the catecheses which, God willing, we shall dedicate to these fascinating, basic articles of the Christian Credo: the resurrection of the body and the eternal life of the whole person, body and soul.

5. One further point should be made: life's earthly journey has an end which, if a person reaches it in friendship with God, coincides with the first moment of eternal bliss. Even, if in that passage to heaven, the soul must undergo the purification of the last impurities through purgatory, it is already filled with light, certitude and joy, because the person knows that he or she belongs for ever to God. At this culminating moment the soul is led by the Holy Spirit, the author and giver not only of the justifying "first grace" and of sanctifying grace throughout one's earthly life, but also of the glorifying grace in hora mortis. It is the grace of final perseverance, according to the teaching of the Council of Orange (cf. Denz 183, 199) and the Council of Trent (cf. Denz 806, 809, 832), founded upon the teaching of the apostle, according to which it is up to God "to desire and to work" good (Phil 2:13), and the person must pray in order to obtain the grace to do good until the end (cf. Rom 14:4; 1 Cor 10:12; Mt 10:22; 24:13).

6. The words of the apostle Paul teach us to see in the gift of the third divine Person the guarantee of the fulfilment of our hope of salvation: "Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Rom 5:5). And therefore, "What will separate us from the love of Christ?". The response is a decisive one: nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:35, 39). Therefore Paul's wish is that we may have an abundance of "hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Rom 15:13). This is the source of Christian optimism, an optimism about the world's destiny, the possibility of salvation at all times, even in the hardest, most difficult moments, in the development of history towards the perfect glorification of Christ ("He will glorify me": Jn 16:14) and the believer's full participation in the glory of the sons of God.

In this perspective the Christian can hold his head high and join in the invocation which, according to the Book of Revelation, is the deepest cry, which the Holy Spirit raises up throughout history: "The Spirit and the Bride say: Come!" (Rev 22:17). Now, listen to the final invitation of the Book of Revelation and of the whole New Testament: "Let the hearer say: Come! Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water.... Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rev 22:17, 20).