Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 78 No. 4, 2008.
Original scientific paper
The Role of Hope in Realising God's Presence Being in the Presence - the Call of Hope
Jakov Mamić
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
We are exploring the role of »hope« in realizing the deep, first of all human, and then Christian need to »live in the Presence.« We capitalize Presence to express more clearly that we are speaking about a reality different from man and everything created: and that reality is God. We have framed our exploration in such a way as to arrive at a complete answer relating to three levels of human being: first, its need to »be as a being« in the Presence; then the level of »being more,« that is, of opening up to the possibility of its transcendence and being in the Presence as such; finally, the need to be in »communional Presence« which is fully a gift.
We have tried to resolve the need of the being as such to be in the Presence through »hope« in so far as it is generally understood as a »passio.« As such it is a property of all that is rationally alive, and therefore it enables the human being to maintain itself in its order of »being.« This maintaining in being is owed to the Presence which wove into the human being this great rule of survival in its creational givenness. Another level of our being is »being more.« This means that the psychological--spiritual need has been more intensely activated in the human being. This need of the human being reveals the Presence of a strong call to that being to open itself up to its possibilities hidden within itself: the call to transcendence. This qualitative leap in our being takes place with the development of a moral system of being: we're dealing here with the development of »hope-virtue.« The development of hope-virtue opens up the human being to the possibility of acquiring permanent attitudes which ground it in the good which is God. Even though this level is still not the one which manifests all our potentialities to us, it nevertheless brings us very close to our ultimate possibility which will follow after it. In that sense this level is the ultimate reach of our being as a created reality.
Our ultimate possibility is one we greatly desire, but whose realization is outside our capability, for it surpasses our being. While the first and second form of »being in the Presence« are for a large part an accomplishment of that positive deposit which the being by virtue of its creational reality carries within itself, this form of »being in the Presence« is fully a gift: it is theological and is realized through the force of »hope--theological virtue.« The issue here is »being in the Presence« in a way given by God to our being: by fully uniting our being to Himself, in such a way that it participates in the profound communion of the Most Holy Trinity. We're dealing here with an anticipation of eternal life.
Our study is for a large part an intensive exploration and reading of the human being on the basis of the teaching of St. John of the Cross, a renowned teacher of human ascents.
Keywords
being; Being; virtue; passio; hope; theological virtues; Presence; union
Hrčak ID:
31766
URI
Publication date:
17.12.2008.
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