The Pope on Hope

Popes write encyclicals. These are official Letters to the Church intended as teaching documents. Pope Benedict XVI has written three. Spe Salvi (Saved in Hope) is the third one. Having read a number of books by this pope, I know his careful scholarship, his clear writing style, and his sometimes intriguing insights, even though I disagree with aspects of his traditional Catholic theology.

I found Saved in Hope very hopeful. I think B16 is ‘right on’ in his analysis of modern nihilism. He deftly diagnoses the emptiness and irrationality of much modern thought. His exegesis of passages from the Letter to the Hebrews offered me new insights. His understanding of most people’s misunderstanding of the New Testament meaning of ‘eternal life’ was most pleasing. “To live always, without ending—this, all things considered, can only be monotonous and ultimately unbearable.” The pope describes the essential contradiction of life: our desire to avoid death, and at the same time our desire to avoid going on living like this forever. He stays away from literal, childish notions of heaven while asserting the reality of the blessed fulfillment God has in store for us which is beyond our ability to describe.

I was surprised to find Benedict’s subtle and sophisticated exposition of the Last Judgment, Purgatory, and Hell to be so believable. It was all very lovingly laid out.

A recent sermon by Pastor Sid at Edgewood Presbyterian struck a similar chord with me. Sid spoke about doubt in a way that gave Hope precedence over Faith. Yes, I said to myself, that’s the way I experience it. For me, faith is very shaky; but hope is a stable reality. Perhaps that is because ‘faith’ is more in my head, and ‘hope’ is a matter of the heart. Now, I know that faith is really a matter of the heart also; but it seems to refuse to descend that eighteen inches for me. Pope Benedict’s way of presenting the saving power of Hope resonated with Sid’s way of preaching about hope.

The Pope gives me hope. I just wish he would wise up on a married priesthood, women clergy, birth control, and some other issues.
 

+++++