God. Christian hope is just as
necessary for salvation as faith. "For we are saved by hope." Thus the
Apostle writes in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. viii, 24). Hence,
when we lose hope we forfeit our salvation.

Christian hope is in part desire, in part confidence. It is a lively
desire for eternal happiness, for the possession of God and for the
means which aid us in gaining salvation. It contains in itself a
heartfelt desire for forgiveness of sins, and for liberation from the
punishment due to sins. It includes an ardent longing for a virtuous
Christian life. It is that hunger and thirst for justice of which
Christ speaks in the eight Beatitudes. As God is the supreme good,
combining every other good, so our desire for the blessed possession of
God must be the sincerest, indeed, the sole, desire of our hearts. All
other things we may desire only on God's account, and only in so far as
they are the means to help us to the possession of God. Whoever
experiences this desire will zealously pray for all things; he will be
a man of prayer.

Christian hope is not only desire, but also confidence. God has
promised us forgiveness of our sins and the grace to do the good that
is required of us. He has promised us after a Christian life the
eternal happiness of heaven. He is ready to fulfil His promises. The
fulfillment of the divine promise depends, however, upon our own
co-operation, upon our sincere good-will, upon our co-operation with
grace. Our confidence must, therefore, never become presumption. The
Apostle admonishes us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.
St. Francis de Sales calls confidence in God and distrust in ourselves
the two balancing poles by the help of which we are enabled to keep our
equilibrium. To distrust ourselves, and to have the fullest trust in
God, this is the essence of Christian hope.

Christian hope is an essential condition for eternal happiness. By hope
we anticipate life eternal. It is to us a pledge and a foretaste, and
when we shall pass into eternity with this living hope, our hope will
be transformed into possession of that which we have hoped for the
possession of God, the supreme good.

III. Charity, the third of the divine virtues, is the virtue infused by
God into our souls which enables us to love God above all things, and
for His sake to love our neighbor as ourselves. That such divine
charity surpasses human power is quite evident. It is inseparably
united to sa