...Natural hope blossoms with the strength of youth
and withers when youth withers. “Youth is a cause of hope. For youth, the
future is long and the past is short.” On the other hand, it is above all when
life grows short that hope grows weary; the “not yet” is turned into the
has-been, and old age turns, not to the “not yet”, but to memories of what is
“no more”.
For supernatural hope, the opposite is true: not
only is it not bound to natural youth; it is actually rooted in a much more
substantial youthfulness. It bestows on mankind a “not yet” that is entirely
superior to and distinct from the failing strength of man’s natural hope. Hence
it gives man such a “long” future that the past seems “short” however long and
rich his life. The theological virtue of hope is the power to wait patiently
for a “not yet” that is the more immeasurably distant from us the more closely
we approach it.
The supernatural vitality of hope overflows,
moreover, and sheds its light also upon the rejuvenated powers of natural hope.
The lives of countless saints attest to this truly astonishing fact. It seems
surprising, however, how seldom the enchanting youthfulness of our great saints
is noticed; especially of those saints who were active in the world as builders
and founders. There is hardly anything comparable to just this youthfulness of
the saint that testifies so challengingly to the fact that is surely most
relevant for contemporary man: that, in the most literal sense of these words,
nothing more eminently preserves and founds “eternal youth” than the theological
virtue of hope. It alone can bestow on man the certain possession of that
aspiration that is at once relaxed and disciplined, that adaptability and
readiness, that strong-hearted freshness, that resilient joy, that steady
perseverance in trust that so distinguish the young and make them lovable.
We must not regard this as a fatal
concession to the Zeitgeist. As Saint Augustine so aptly says: “God is
younger than all else.”
The gift
of youth that supernatural hope bestows on man leaves its mark on human nature
at a much deeper level than does natural youth. Despite its very visible
effect in the natural sphere, the Christian's supernaturally grounded
youthfulness lives from a root that penetrates into an area of human nature that
the powers of natural hope are unable to reach. This is so because the
supernatural youthfulness emanates from participation in the life of God, who is
closer and more intimate to us than we are to ourselves.
For this
reason, the youthfulness of the individual who longs for eternal life is
fundamentally imperishable. It cannot be touched by aging or
disappointment; it proves itself above all in the face of the withering of
natural youth and in temptations to despair. Saint Paul says, "Even though
our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor
4:16). But there are no other words in Holy Scripture or in human speech
as a whole that let resound as triumphantly the youthfulness of one who remains
firm in hope against all destruction and through a veil of tears as do those of
the patient Job: "Although he should slay me, I will trust in him"
(13:15)...
