Single Question: On the Precept of Hope Itself

S. Th. II-II, q. 22.

838. By natural-divine right there is given a precept of hope, obliging under grave obligation, as is clear both from reason: for supposing that God has destined and promised supernatural beatitude to us, reverence toward him demands that we hope for it from him and adhere to him with firm confidence; and from Scripture, which requires the act of hope as a means of justification or perseverance or as a condition of merit, as was said above, nn. 808 and 809. Cf. Rom. VIII, 24; Heb. III, 6; I Jn. III, 3.

This precept is both negative, by which we are prohibited from casting away hope by despair or presumption, and this obliges always; and affirmative, by which we are obliged sometimes to elicit an act of hope, and this does not oblige always.

839. The obligation of eliciting an act of hope is present from a multiple head:

A. The very virtue and precept of hope obliges per se, that is, in circumstances common to the condition of all men, when the precept of converting oneself to God urges (n. 790):

1. at the beginning of the use of reason, or when eternal beatitude has been sufficiently proposed as the end toward which each one must tend, which he could not do unless he hoped for beatitude and the means to it from God;

2. in the article of death (that is, toward the end of life), when he is at the point of attaining the end;

3. several times in life (cf. prop. 1 condemned by Alexander VII1), which some determine by saying: under grave obligation, at least once a year; others each month or week; others more probably: several times, at least three or four times a year.

B. The very virtue and precept of hope obliges per accidens, that is, on the occasion of some special circumstance:

1. when a temptation against hope arises which is hoped to be overcome only by an act of this virtue; yet this is not fitting for the scrupulous, who torture themselves by repeating this act; hence they should contemn such temptations by turning to other things;

2. when hope has been lost, which happens by a directly contrary sin, and by infidelity;

3. when we manifest hope outwardly; otherwise the manifestation would be simulation.

C. Other virtues and precepts also sometimes oblige us to elicit an act of hope at least implicitly:

1. when temptations arise against other virtues, for example, religion or chastity, which are hoped to be overcome only by an act of hope;

2. when someone must or intends to receive the sacraments;

3. when someone must or intends to exercise an act of another virtue which cannot be exercised without an act of hope, for example, prayer, hearing Mass, contrition for sins, etc.

But in these cases the obligation does not arise from the precept of hope itself; hence if that act is omitted, we do not sin against hope itself, but only against another precept by force of which it was required.

1. "A man at no time whatever of his life is bound to elicit an act of faith, hope, and charity by force of the divine precepts pertaining to those virtues."

840. In the positive divine law itself an explicit precept of hope did not have to be placed. - St. Thomas shows this, a. 1:

"Some precepts... are of the substance of the law, but some are preambles to the law. Those things are preambles to the law without which the law cannot have place. Of this kind are the precepts concerning the act of faith and the act of hope; because through the act of faith the mind of man is inclined to recognize the author of the law as such, to whom he ought to subject himself; but through hope of reward man is induced to the observance of the precepts. But precepts of the substance of the law are those which are imposed upon man already subject and prepared to obey, pertaining to rectitude of life. And therefore precepts of this kind are proposed at once in the very legislation after the manner of precepts. But the precepts of hope and faith were not to be proposed after the manner of precepts, because unless man already believed and hoped, the law would be proposed to him in vain. But:

a) Just as the precept of faith had to be proposed by way of announcement or commemoration,... so also the precept of hope had to be proposed in the first legislation by way of promise. For he who promises rewards to those obeying, by this very fact incites to hope. Hence all promises which are contained in the law are things exciting hope.

b) But because, once the law has already been imposed, it pertains to wise men not only to induce men to the observance of the precepts, but also much more to conserving the foundation of the law; therefore after the first legislation in Sacred Scripture men are induced to hoping in many ways, even by way of admonition or precept, and not only by way of promise, as in the law; as is clear in Ps. LXI, 9: Hope in him, all the congregation of the people, and in many other places of Scripture (Ps. IV, Eccli. II, Hos. XII, etc.)."

The same holds concerning servile fear; but concerning filial fear there is given a precept in the law, as concerning love, as concerning the principle of the whole law (a. 2).

841. Practical counsel. - The faithful should be exhorted as much as possible to exercising hope; nevertheless penitents should not be questioned about the fulfillment of this precept, because it is necessarily fulfilled through the observance of the precepts or acts of Christian life: for it is not required that, once hope has been received, it be exercised explicitly, but everywhere it suffices that this be done implicitly, by placing a work which cannot be fulfilled without it.