Just Sayin’ #26 CA3 by George Knight
“Where There’s Life There’s Hope”
Dear Friends,
Faithful Christians find little difficulty with this old saying. Yet its roots are older than Christianity. The ancient Greek poet Theocritus (3rd century BCE) expressed something very similar: “While there’s breath in a man, there’s Hope.”
Centuries later, the Catholic poet Alexander Pope wrote, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.”
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI explored this theme deeply in his encyclical Spe Salvi (“Saved in Hope”). Reflecting on St Paul’s words “In Hope we were saved” (Romans 8:24), Benedict showed that the whole Christian message is contained in this proclamation of Hope — indeed, of “Hope beyond hope.”
Two great insights emerge.
First, there are two kinds of Hope: the Great Hope and the smaller, everyday hopes.
Second, for the Christian, Faith and Hope are inseparable. To believe in Jesus Christ is to Hope.
The Great Hope is that there is a life beyond this earthly one — a life where justice, mercy, peace and love reign forever. Christ taught us that Heaven is real. It is not a pious wish but a reality to be sought and hoped for with all our hearts.
Because this Hope rests entirely on Faith in the Word of God made flesh, and on the Revelation entrusted to the Church, Christian Faith and Christian Hope are one and the same.
For believers, therefore, the saying “Where there’s life, there’s Hope” rests on firm ground.
For others, however, it is far less certain. Whether life brings Hope depends on what we choose to believe, how we choose to live, and which God — or which idol — we ultimately follow.
In the end, every human being faces the same fundamental choice: life or death, “to be or not to be.” We should therefore choose deliberately, choose wisely, and choose well.
Until next Thursday — in friendship and Prayer,
God bless,
George K.
Restore God’s Kingdom
www.restoregodskingdom.ie
