Can We Still Hope?

Reflections on the Christian Sense of Hope

Abstract

The intervention – fruit of Milan’s Catholic Action Days of Theology – looks from a theological point of view at the virtue of Hope also seeking reasons for its relevance for today. The biblical image of the eschatological discourse (Lk 21: 5-28) provides the evident “Christological concentration” of Christian hope: the very person of Jesus is its foundation; starting from the ardent core of Easter, the Risen Crucified One is the future who comes to meet us and who justifies our hope in the present. Such a base permits us to examine some of the anthropological implications: the rediscovery of the meaning of life, the communitary dimension and practice of hope, also in the face of suffering and death.