Saint Paul writes to the Romans: “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?” (Rom 8:24). The hope he is talking about concerns the glorification of God’s children at the end of time. Since the whole creation is eagerly waiting “for the revealing of the sons of God” (Rom 8:19) and, consequently, for its own eventual liberation from bondage and decay, hope, as “the first fruits of the Spirit” (Rom 8: 23), “groan[s] inwardly [in us] as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8: 23).

Christ is the perfect embodiment of our unending hope. Every believer must profess that “Christ’s life is mine!” Such an affirmation is not restricted to the enslaving present. It is not bound to worldly temporality. Much less is it subjected to earthly paraphernalia. Hope in, with and through Christ extends the contemporary cultural tendencies of human weakness. It is the royal road to heavenly bliss. Christ, who “is the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Heb 13: 8), is the sole guarantor of our ultimate sharing in the saving hope of God’s glory.

That is why Saint Paul strongly encourages us that, amid the pain we have to undergo in this life in order to be transformed in Christ by the Holy Spirit, we are to let this undying hope redeem us daily.

Because this “hope does not disappoint us” (Rom 5:5), we are to greatly “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Rom 5: 3-4). The hope we nourish in our hearts is a person: Jesus Christ, the one who now lives on the right hand of the Father. The alpha and the omega of what existed, exists and will exist. The timeless conqueror over sin, death, Satan and the world!

Thanks to Christ, we are the “heirs of God” and “fellow heirs with [Him] provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:17). Being with Christ in God forever is such an awesome reality which “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived” (1 Cor 2: 9), that Saint Paul admitted that prevalent hardships are incomparable to the future glory that is awaiting those who trust in Christ Jesus. He openly confessed: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8: 18).

We Christians are greatly responsible for living these practical consequences of this invincible hope. The late second century document entitled “The Christians in the World” holds us believers accountable to live by God’s Spirit. Christians ought to “live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, yet they live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonour, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they, rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life”.

These simple reflections remind us of the painting by the pre-Raphaelite English artist William Holman Hunt, who, in his artistic work depicts the risen Christ still walking the face of an unredeemed world, carrying a light in one hand while knocking at a door with the other. The painting evokes Revelations 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” The door, so the artist revealed, does not have a handle on the outside since it can only be opened from the inside.

Am I going to let God’s Spirit leading me to open it?

Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap

SAN GWANN