Hope

WHAT IS HOPE?

Recall what the theological virtues are

Let us first recall what we have said about the theological virtues. Faith, hope and charity are called "theological" because they have God for their

source: they come from God, and they grow when God pours more of them into the soul, hence we need to pray to God if we want them to grow in us;
motive, reason or support: the reason for believing, or hoping, or loving is God, not other factors, such as those based on any created thing;
end or object: we believe God and believe in God, we hope and trust in God, we love God and (for the sake of God) love others.

Human hopes

As beings with a mind and a will, we act with a view to an end, we act for a purpose. When we perceive that something , which we do not yet possess, is good for us, there arises a desire for it. But our mind also has to consider whether that perceived good can be attained, we have to consider whether it is possible to attain it. If it were not possible, we would not act at all.

Human hope motivates us to work and strive hard. The reasons for that hope is varied: feed one's family, develop one's career, serve other people, and so on. Stronger desire makes for greater hope, and greater hope makes for willingness to exert effort.

Nonetheless, human hopes alone do not completely satisfy us. Deep inside man there is a longing for something that does not fade, something that lasts for ever.

Hence, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI says in the Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (nos 30 and 31):

Day by day, man experiences many greater or lesser hopes, different in kind according to the different periods of his life. Sometimes one of these hopes may appear to be totally satisfying without any need for other hopes. Young people can have the hope of a great and fully satisfying love; the hope of a certain position in their profession, or of some success that will prove decisive for the rest of their lives. When these hopes are fulfilled, however, it becomes clear that they were not, in reality, the whole. It becomes evident that man has need of a hope that goes further. It becomes clear that only something infinite will suffice for him, something that will always be more than he can ever attain. ...

... we need the greater and lesser hopes that keep us going day by day. But these are not enough without the great hope, which must surpass everything else. This great hope can only be God, who encompasses the whole of reality and who can bestow upon us what we, by ourselves, cannot attain.

Supernatural hope

Theological hope is supernatural in its object, its motive and its source.

Object. When we speak of the theological virtue of hope, we are not only speaking of merely human goals such as success or fame or power. Rather, we are referring to never-ending and unlimited happiness, which can only be enjoyed in God's company. Hence, when we say we have (supernatural) hope, we mean that we trust that God will give us the means ((cf Titus 3:7; Tobias 2:18; Summa Theologiae, part 2 of second part, question 17, article 2)) to attain that never-ending and unlimited happiness in heaven.
Motive or Reason for Hope. Theological hope gives us a much stronger basis for attaining what we are striving for because our confidence lies no longer on any created being. Creatures are not fail-safe. But God is--He is the basis for our hope. We can have hope because God has promised, and he is always faithful.
Source of Hope. Man cannot respond to the call of God’s love by his own strength alone. Man must hope that God will give him the capacity to love Him in return and to fulfill the commandments of love. Through the virtue of hope, man confidently awaits the divine blessing and the beatific vision of God. It also entails fear of offending God’s love and of provoking God’s punishment. (Cf Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos 1817-1821; 2090-2092) Does this mean that we don't have to do anything? No. Because God's grace cannot bring about its effect without our cooperation. An analogy might help at this point. When a sick person abandons all the means to get well, it is a sign that he has lost hope. But if he uses all the means at his disposal, we know that he has hope.

WHO POSSESSES THE VIRTUE OF HOPE?

As to its subject, all the faithful possess the virtue of hope, even those in the state of sin. The only exceptions are:

formal heretics, because they have destroyed faith, which is the foundation of hope; and
those having committed a mortal sin against hope and not yet forgiven. The souls in purgatory also have this virtue.

But, as in the case of faith, those who have hope but have lost sanctifying grace are said to have formless hope.

The properties of hope are:

It is a supernatural virtue, just like faith.
It is effective: through it we not only hope, but also courageously strive to reach the object of our hope.
It is firm, insofar as it rests on God. But it is not firm as regards the certitude of our cooperation. Thus, in this life hope is always mixed with a certain degree of mistrust for ourselves. This helps us to be humble.

DO I NEED HOPE TO BE SAVED?

The Scripture says: "For we are saved by hope" (Romans 8:24). Pope Benedict employed these very words of the Letter to the Romans for his Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi. Recall the two kinds of necessity: necessity of means and necessity by precept. Hope is necessary on these two counts.

Hope is necessary as a means of salvation

The virtue of hope (habitual hope) is necessary as a means for salvation. (Cf Council of Trent: DS 1530)
Some acts of hope (actual hope) are necessary as a means for salvation for adults with the use of reason.

Hope is necessary by precept

Acts of hope are also necessary by divine-positive law (necessity from precept) in the following cases:

At the beginning of moral life
Some other times during one’s life
When death is imminent
Acts of hope are also accidentally necessary when there is a serious temptation against hope, or when an action requiring an act of hope must be performed (sacrament of confession, for example).

HOW CAN ONE SIN AGAINST HOPE?

Sins against hope can be classified into three types:

Omission of a necessary act of hope.
Despair, which consists in deliberately giving up any hope of eternal salvation. (Cf CCC, 2091) Sometimes it is a mere faintheartedness. This is usually just a temptation that must be rejected. A different thing is positive despair, which leads to giving up all efforts to reach salvation, because the latter is deemed impossible. Positive despair is always a mortal sin (ex toto genere suo), since it implies mistrusting God and leads away from him. (Cf Summa Theologiae, part 1 of the second part, question 40, article 4 response to the 3rd objection; cf Summa Theologiae, part 2 of the second part, question 20, article 4)
Presumption is a reckless confidence of reaching salvation by means other than those established by God. (Cf S. Th., 2-2, q. 21, aa. 1-2; CCC, 2092) It may have different manifestations: