Christ the Hope of the World

The Christian hope is grounded in the Christian faith. It is grounded in the belief that God takes interest in human life and in human history. It is much more than a general belief in the Divine Providence or in a sovereign Lordship of God. “God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son.” The Son of God came down; He dwelt among men, or rather He established His abode in their midst: “And was made man.” The ultimate meaning of the august mystery of the Incarnation is precisely in that paradoxical identification of God with the needs and concerns of man. The Christian message of love is not so much a commandment or a moral imperative as a witness, a grateful acknowledgment of the Love Divine. And the climax of this love was that the Prince of Peace died on the tree of the Cross that man might have life, and have it abundantly. 

In Christ, God’s Lordship was manifested in an intimate and personal manner. The Lord of Creation, Himself, has appeared among men and was made man. And He is still, and forever, with men in the Church, because “the Church is His Body,” to use the glorious phrase of St. Paul. The Church is not just a company of believers; not just a community of men, united by the same allegiance and by the same convictions, but precisely the Body of Christ, the place in which He is ever present and is continuing His “ministry of reconciliation.” Man is not alone. And this is not only because he is under the paternal care of the Creator, but because he is taken into God’s own possession, in the Incarnate Lord, perfect man and perfect God. 

There is a divine pattern of human history. It is much more than an abstract scheme or just a plan. God is taking part in the making of history, from day to day, even if man cannot always discern clearly the ways of God in that making. History has its divinely established aim and goal, which will be accomplished on the “last day.” History is not just a chaotic display of the blind forces of nature, nor is it a product of human planning and desire, nor is it an indefinite process in time, which may go on without ever reaching any completeness. History is much more than a stage on which personal destinies are played out. History itself is the “history of Salvation,” to be ultimately “consummated.” 

In the Biblical and traditional interpretation, human history is conceived as a finite process which is moving towards an established purpose. It belongs organically to the essence of the Christian faith that Christ, the Lord Incarnate, is to “come again,” in Glory and for Judgment. This “coming” will be the end of history, a “judgment” and a “consummation” at once. A judgment and therefore a discrimination, a consummation or a “recapitulation,” in which all scattered values of human existence will be integrated and all true achievements will be gathered together. Eternal treasures are being gathered already in the course of history, to be ultimately summed up. Thus, there is an element of a confident expectation implied in the Christian faith. It is here that the hope of Christians is ultimately rooted. God had once sovereignly acted when Christ came into the world. The same Christ is continually reigning in the world. He will manifest His rule ultimately in a manner which transcends all human imagination and yet will fulfill and accomplish the deepest desires and aspirations of man. He is coming…

“The hour is coming, and now is. . .” Man is not alone in this world, if he is with Christ, by faith and obedience, as lonely as he may feel himself to be in a hostile world, which is lying in the evil. And he is not left to his own whims and efforts. Not only in the sense that, after all, the world is still God’s world, even in its estrangement, and God is its Sovereign and Master, in spite of human rebellion and resistance, but rather in the sense that God, as it had been manifested in Christ, is intimately associated with human endeavors. 

It is of utter importance that we understand and recognize this deep dependence of our hope, of all our hopes, upon our faith. It is only in Christ and through Him that we have any title for hope. Nothing can be done or achieved without Christ, or except in His name and by His power. We are entitled to hope at all, because we are given assurance in our faith, because in Christ the counsels of God were revealed to be counsels of the Redeeming Love. 

Accordingly, Christian hope is intrinsically a call to action. It is precisely because the Son of God was made man, to accomplish the will of the Father, that man should become the Son of God and to behave as a son, and not as a hireling, i.e. to do the will of the Heavenly Father, and not to be guided by his own self-will. Man should die unto himself, die unto the world, and rise in Christ, to dwell in Him, and to allow the Lord to shape his life, by the Spirit. Human planning must be done in the perspective and in the context of the Divine rule, as it had been manifested and disclosed supremely on the Cross and in the glory of the Resurrection. We are entitled to hope. But precisely for that reason we have to justify or to manifest our hope in our deeds. There is no room for an idle or passive expectation. In the present world, so sorely disturbed and discouraged, it is not enough just to proclaim or to preach the hope. We have to evidence our hope by our faithful and devout cooperation with the Divine purpose. We may discern it but by faith. We should grow in faith, and then our confidence would grow also. It is from “little faith” that doubts and despair do come. And it was in the light of his triumphant faith that St. Paul knew that he could do all, in Christ helping him. Only by serving God can man restore his confidence and hope and apprehend the meaningfulness of his existence. 

God has identified Himself with man in Christ. Now we have to identify ourselves with Him in Christ, by a greater acknowledgment of His love and by a more devout and self-renouncing service. Our hope will mature and grow in the measure in which we strengthen and increase our faith and grow in our understanding of God’s abiding presence, in our midst, in Christ, our Lord, and in His Holy Church, which is His Body, “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” “In the world, ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world. . .”