Aquinas on Hope

Berenike sent me a link to this Garrigou-Lagrange pic a few weeks ago. Fred’s post on Hope according to St Paul and Fr Giussani prompted me to re-read Aquinas on Hope, and “eternal life – you have it already (albeit imperfectly)” pretty much sums up what Aquinas has to say.

The Apostle says (Hebrews 6:19) that we have hope “which enters in”, i.e. makes us to enter…”within the veil”, i.e. into the happiness of heaven, according to the interpretation of a gloss on these words. Therefore the object of hope is eternal happiness.

The hope of which we speak now attains God by leaning on his help in order to obtain the hoped for good.

Now an effect must be proportionate to its cause. Wherefore the good which we ought to hope for from God properly and chiefly is the infinite good, which is proportionate to the power of our divine helper, since it belongs to an infinite power to lead anyone to an infinite good.

Such a good is eternal life, which consists in the enjoyment of God himself. For we should hope from him for nothing less than himself, since his goodness, whereby he imparts good things to his creature, is no less than his essence.

Therefore the proper and principal object of hope is eternal happiness.

Eternal happiness does not enter into the heart of man perfectly, i.e. so that it be possible for a wayfarer to know its nature and quality. Yet, under the general notion of the perfect good, it is possible for it to be apprehended by a man, and it is in this way that the movement of hope towards it arises.

Hence the Apostle says pointedly that hope “enters in, even within the veil”, because that which we hope for is as yet veiled, so to speak.

(Summa Theologiae, IIaIIae, q. 17, a. 1 (sed contra, corpus, and ad 1).