As you know, 2025 is the Church's Jubilee Year of Hope. Much will be written and preached on the theme of hope. With this in mind, I thought I would provide some context by speaking of the theological virtues: faith, hope, and love.
A virtue is basically a good habit that helps shape you into a good person. We build up good habits by repetition: choosing something over and over again until it comes more easily and naturally. But the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love are unique. We do not acquire them on our own. They are gifts God gives us at Baptism. This is why we call them theological: they come from God. We also call them theological because they lead us to God.
Even though faith, hope, and love are gifts which we cannot acquire by our own efforts, we still need to reinforce them and build them up just like any other virtues. We need to exercise our faith, hope, and love by the choices we make. Otherwise, they will not accomplish their purpose of leading us closer to God.
Faith is a word we use all the time, but what is faith? A lot of people seem to think of faith as some sort of psychic power. (If only I had more faith, my prayers would be answered!)
No, faith is not some kind of power that we possess more or less of. Faith is a relationship with God. And if I have a relationship with God, I get to know Him as someone who loves me and cares for me. And, as a result, I come to trust Him completely. And because I trust Him, I believe the things He has revealed to humanity.
Those things have been passed down by the community of believers, the Church. The things God reveals are summarized in the Creed we profess every Sunday. To have faith means I have a relationship with God and I believe the things He has revealed.
Hope helps us desire eternal life and trust God to lead us to eternal life. Hope helps us persevere on our journey to eternal life. Hope is easier to understand when we look at the two opposite ways of failing in hope.
One is presumption. A presumptuous person is overconfident about reaching heaven. A presumptuous person takes God's mercy for granted but is not truly repentant.
The opposite failing is despair. People who despair think they are such terrible sinners, there is no way God could ever forgive them and lead them to eternal life.
Love, also sometimes referred to as charity when speaking of the theological virtues, is willing the good of another person. It can involve emotions and feelings but real love is not simply some feeling. Love is a choice that one makes regardless of how one feels.
The proof of love is sacrifice. As a theological virtue, love is a habit of relating to all people in a loving manner, that is, in a way that desires and promotes their good.
By Father Kevin Bobbin, pastor of St. John the Baptist, Pottsville, and chaplain of Nativity BVM High School, Pottsville and the Diocesan Homeschool Community.
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