Hope

I have spent some time pondering on the nature of Hope. We can say, "I hope a letter from my friend arrives today." But what do we mean by that? Sometimes we wish for a letter with little hope of hearing from the friend. At other times we say, "I hope the letter from my friend arrives today," implying that we know the letter is on its way, and we are expecting it at any time. The letter and a letter are two different things. A letter means any letter. The letter is the one that the friend has promised to send and that we trust has been put in the mail already. Hope, it turns out, really only applies to the letter. And Hope, with a capital h, has its foundation in a promise from someone we trust.

One of the inherent qualities of Hope is that it is forward looking. Its power is an anchor in future events. By definition the future is the yet unexperienced. But Hope transforms things of the future into things which are to be desired.

In Spanish the word for Hope, esperanza, is related to the verb, esperar, to hope. But esperar is also to wait. And so we have a coloring of the meaning of Hope as anchored on something worth waiting for. In contrast, the Spanish, desperado, is to be without Hope or to be desperate. And hopeless describes the state of those who have nothing to look forward to..

Now I venture into the scriptural. The Hope we are studying is that of the Christian believer.

In the scripture, Paul refers to three things of great importance, they are Faith, Hope and Charity. (see 1 Corinthians 13:13) And yet he mentions them in such a way that their relationship to each other is only implied.

Faith is well explained as the belief in the power of Christⁱ to deliver us from our sins and from the power of death. One cannot repent unless Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is already present. We must be able to trust that Jesus Christ as God has atoned for the sins of all mankind and created for us an opportunity to be reconciled to God, if this is our desire.

Charity is also well explained as the pure loveⁱⁱ of Christ, that which motivates God to extend mercy to his children. We must learn to serve our fellowmen and love them as God does in order to achieve the beginning of Charity.

Hope, in contrast, is not so well explained because it is simply mentioned as the middle of the three, a trio which Paul says "abide" together. The relationship between them seems to have an order of progression. First mentioned is always Faith. Then comes Hopeⁱⁱⁱ, and last comes Charity. Paul makes clear that the greatest of these is Charity.

Each of these things is an attainment of the mind of the believer in Christ. They seem to symbolize a progression of attitudes, like doors that we must pass through. Each of these doors is a symbol of our progress toward that transformation wherein we become like God^iv.

Faith is a gift^v given to the person who seeks to know God's will concerning him. Hope is then the gift which follows faith. It is the realization that if one can be returned to God then he must be looking forward to the day with a desire to be fully prepared, to live life here after the manner of happiness. And once his feet are on the path then the Hope blossoms into the final gift,Charity, by turning the man or woman of God outward to the problems of others and to serving them first.

What are the things for which the Christian hopes? What are the things promised? The promise is of a life after this one where we are brought before God^vi, our Father. And we are brought with all the treasures that we have gathered from this life. The first treasure is a body like His own. The next treasure is different for each person, but the Christian brings with him his Hope of a resurrection that is more than a body^vii. It would be a resurrection in glory like unto the glorious body of the Son^viii. The last treasure gathered in this life is the gift of Charity, a love of all God's children. Those who are "possessed of it"^ix at the last day are those whose joy is full. And their joy is full because they can rejoice in the happiness of their fellows as well as their own^x.

In conclusion, for us Christians, the promised letter is already in the mail. To have Hope is to look forward to the day that all our treasures are declared to be ours forever^xi. We wait for the arrival of a time when our body is like that of the Son, and that we are indeed like Him^xii, and that we love as He does. Thus abide Faith, Hope and Charity, these three.

i See Articles of Faith 4

ii See Moroni 7:47

iii See Moroni 7:42

iv See Moroni 7:48

v See 1 Corinthians 12:9

vi See Alma 40:21

vii See Doctrine and Covenants 42:45

viii See Philipippians 3:21

ix Moroni 7:48

x See 2 Nephi 9:18

xi See Helaman 3:30

xii See 1 John 3:2-3, also Moroni 7:47-48