My first contribution on Benedict XVI’s newest encyclical to the Per Christum blog Spe Salvi roundtable:
As I read through the Holy Father’s recent encyclical, my thoughts kept returning to the connection between hope and humility. Benedict consistently contrasts the philosophers, scientists, and activists who want to build the kingdom of God through technology and human progress with the humble saints of the Church who succeeded, in their lives and in their deaths, as a witness to the real meaning of hope. Outcasts know hopelessness so well that they are uniquely disposed to zealously embrace hope and just as eagerly share it with the world. Even those who are in positions of power and wealth and status need hope too, as Benedict points out, but it requires us to recognize that we are “living without hope and without God in the world.” Sometimes those of us who are rich or even “comfortable” have just the right number of toys, institutional affiliations, and reasons for optimism that we can put aside that nagging voice telling us that maybe something greater exists: the love of God and the coming of a life that is “truly” life. This is the great hope that we have as Christians, but are we humble enough to truly embrace it?