As we approach the close of the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025, we shall take a brief look at some aspects or elements of hope, particularly as they appear in the Magisterium of the Church. One aspect of Christian hope is undoubtedly the eschatological element—the last things—that is, death, judgement, and the consequence of that judgement, which, in a sense, we shape ourselves during our lifetime. The Christian way of understanding all this does not have its roots in fear but in hope—hope not only in individual salvation but in the renewal of all things in Christ.

This hope can reach its fulfilment in God, where justice and mercy are perfect, and therefore do not oppose one another or create “conflict.” This stands in contrast with purely human programmes which can never bring about a perfect world without eliminating freedom. On the contrary, hope in the judgement to come can fulfil humanity’s deepest longings while inspiring conversion of heart already in this life.

Here it is fitting to recall the explanation given by Pope Benedict XVI in the Encyclical Spe Salvi concerning purgatory, which forms an essential part of Christian hope precisely because purgatory is that “place,” or rather state, where a person is given the opportunity, even after death, to be purified of his or her hopes. Benedict XVI writes:

Some recent theologians are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgment. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away. This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation ‘as through fire’. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God.

Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter on Christian Hope, Spe Salvi (November 30, 2007, par. 47

And this hope of salvation is, in essence, a hope for others. Only in this way does it truly become hope for myself as well: “As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: how can I save myself? We should also ask: what can I do in order that others may be saved and that for them too the star of hope may rise? Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well” (par. 48)

This is the hope we must have—indeed, the hope we are called to have as creatures made in the image of Christ: the hope that becomes the grain of wheat which dies in order to give life. Even if, at the moment of death, of difficulty, or of life’s hardships, one feels nothing of this hope, it is still there, hidden, silent, yet present. And, as the Spirit moves within us, hope becomes the word that resounds in the emptiness of this world, so that God may fill all things.