WHERE everything can be faked or artificially created, even hope is not an exemption. We read here and there postings and messages that seek to send out reminders of hope. But are they really expressions of “that virtue” that we so need these days? Or are they artificial expressions, at the very least our “denial” of the so many realities that we still cannot embrace up to this point?
These questions are important because oftentimes we tend to avoid anything self-critical for fear of being too negative. But there is a difference between the appreciation of self-criticism and hopelessness. It is one thing to allow the unfolding of the “dialectic within” from being hopeless. The latter is the diminution of the very existential fuel that drives life to thrive and move forward. The former is an expression of humility and honesty that though we do long for a world that is better than what it is today, but precisely part of this is the admission that the status quo is not perfect and in it are elements that need to be corrected.
It is interesting to note that in Scripture hope is intricately woven with faith. Both are virtues that allow the human person to “trust” even without having seen anything certain as an evidence of what must be trusted. But because of this trust, the intellect is moved to interpret reality and thus arrange it according to a certain conviction, and thus a certain order. In doing so hope, just like faith, enables the human person to acknowledge that “something” must be done other than being positive. Precisely why he who is hopeful is not just positive; he lives in courage expressed in “actions.” The measure of hope (as with faith) is not just what the mind and heart affirm but what the entire person does and shows in the face of life’s greatest adversities.
That is why the moment our expressions, statements, and gestures of hope become allergic to the world’s objective realities and thus avoidant of self-criticism it becomes artificial. It ceases to be genuine hope. Simply, it is no longer hope. After all, what is hope but a “human virtue” and no virtue especially that which springs from humanity can be so perfect as to be immune from self-criticism.
Self-criticism is the acknowledgment of the many defects and imperfections that there are in a system. These defects may be objective and subjective. Nonetheless, they all need correction for the system not only to go but also grow or thrive as a living and dynamic reality. Without this, one cannot claim to be truly hopeful. We can relate to this the notion of “formation” which comes from the root word “form.” The process of becoming “a certain form” can never be complete without its related deconstructive elements of “deformation”, “reformation” and thus “transformation.”
Why are we talking about these things? It is important that we discern even the “act” of “hoping” these days. Sometimes, our fear of life’s uncertainties pushes us to hold on to something that would enable us to survive. Without knowing it, even our expressions of hope are not actually virtuous in themselves. This is true with those who would like to wake up to a world that is bright and beautiful despite the objective fact that in some parts ugliness exists. This is not to say that all we must do is to magnify what is ugly. No. We do have to see the beauty in this world. However, our affirmation of what is beautiful should not be a deliberate decision to be blind to the sufferings and miseries experienced by others. We see this among people who are stuck in their toxic positivity or, worse, an undiagnosed neurotic state.
The Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino said: “hope is the seed of liberation.” Rightly so, genuine hope frees us not only from our negative “feelings” but from everything that is untrue. Genuine (not artificial) hope acknowledges that the struggle is real. To be hopeful is to be concerned, and to be concerned is to be aware that much must be fought for, because one cares, because one lives. He who hopes stands up not just for himself, but also for others and for the world.