Good for the soul
I was going to confession once, and the priest pointed out to me that what my sins had in common was that they were sins against hope.
Not to excuse myself, but more to say “it takes one to know one,” I think I see a lack of hope – or even an opposition to hope – all around us in the American culture. And I think this “sinning against hope” is at the root of many problems in the world today.
Hope … for what?
Thomas Aquinas says that the object of hope is a future good, difficult but possible to obtain. This deceptively simple definition has four parts:
- Hope seeks a good - i.e., it looks for something truly desirable and worthy
- The good that hope seeks is in the future - it is not something we can have here and now, or even immediately
- This good is difficult to achieve – it is not something that will simply come to us, that we can take for granted
- Yet, it is possible - it is not a fantasy, or a daydream, but is something real and within the grasp of those who strive for it
Beauty is always worth striving after
For myself, I find I fail on every one of these points. For example, I hope to be a good bass guitarist. But there are times I just don’t feel that playing music is very important or worthwhile. Or I grow impatient and figure if I can’t be a rock star right now then I’d rather not play at all. Or I give up in frustration, not wanting to endure the effort and pain of practice. Or, worst of all, I despair of ever improving, imagining that I am missing some vital talent or gift.
In all these cases, though, the objection is summed up easily: “Why bother?”
Why bother?
I hear variations of this objection all the time. I hear it from co-workers: “Who’s going to find out?” I hear it from friends: “Eh, whatever.” I hear it from my own heart: “I’d rather just watch TV.”
The problem here is that we lose touch with reality. Whether we wallow in a wishful fantasy or settle for a lesser or easier goal, to lose hope is to let go of the truth that good things are worth pursuing. It is to forget that music really is beautiful, and that there is a unique beauty that can only come through my own fingers.
It is to believe the lie that this – whatever situation we’re in, whether personal or political or practical – that this is as good as it’s going to get, and nothing we do can make it any better.
Despair says: “It’ll never be perfect.” But hope says, “It can always be better.”
And the virtue of hope is repeating, reminding, building the habit in myself and others of always doing things even a little bit better.
I think it is easy to have that attitude in the small things, like playing a musical instrument. What advice have you for the bigger issues? Your points are all still valid of course, but I just find it so much more exhausting to have hope in, say politics or the state of the world, or an end to hunger. I KNOW that my concerns in these areas will be resolved if nothing else, when the Lord comes again, but I often find myself resolved to simply accept that this is the world we live in (ooohh oh oh, and these are the hand were given, just kidding)and far from motivated to DO anything about it. These BIG problems are hard to EVER feel like you are putting a dent in!