Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Francis used his general audience this week to emphasise the importance of hope in Christianity.

Speaking to thousands of pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square, the Pope said that Christian hope is not simply an optimistic desire as it is based on the fact that one day God’s people will be reunited with him.

“We now consider the object of our Christian hope, the fulfilment of God’s promises in the coming of Christ at the end of time,” the Pope said in his catechesis. “St John speaks of this joyful encounter between the Lord and his people using the image of ‘the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned to meet her husband.’

“This spousal imagery contains a profound truth: by taking on our flesh, Jesus united humanity to himself, and at his coming we will see the consummation of this mystic marriage in the wedding feast of heaven.

“Christian hope, then, is our joyful expectation of the Lord’s coming and the fulfilment of his saving plan for the human family.

“In every generation the Church holds high the lamp of this hope before the world. Today, let us ask whether our own lamps are alight with the oil of faith, and to what extent we live as credible and joy-filled witnesses to our hope in God’s promises.”