Whether in the Blessed There Is Hope?
Objection 1: It would seem that in the blessed there is hope. For
Christ was a perfect comprehensor from the first moment of His
conception. Now He had hope, since, according to a gloss, the words
of Ps. 30:2, "In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped," are said in His person.
Therefore in the blessed there can be hope.
Obj. 2: Further, even as the obtaining of happiness is an arduous
good, so is its continuation. Now, before they obtain happiness, men
hope to obtain it. Therefore, after they have obtained it, they can
hope to continue in its possession.
Obj. 3: Further, by the virtue of hope, a man can hope for happiness,
not only for himself, but also for others, as stated above (Q. 17, A.
3). But the blessed who are in heaven hope for the happiness of
others, else they would not pray for them. Therefore there can be
hope in them.
Obj. 4: Further, the happiness of the saints implies not only glory
of the soul but also glory of the body. Now the souls of the saints
in heaven, look yet for the glory of their bodies (Apoc. 6:10;
Augustine, Gen. ad lit. xii, 35). Therefore in the blessed there can
be hope.
_On the contrary,_ The Apostle says (Rom. 8:24): "What a man seeth,
why doth he hope for?" Now the blessed enjoy the sight of God.
Therefore hope has no place in them.
_I answer that,_ If what gives a thing its species be removed, the
species is destroyed, and that thing cannot remain the same; just as
when a natural body loses its form, it does not remain the same
specifically. Now hope takes its species from its principal object,
even as the other virtues do, as was shown above (Q. 17, AA. 5, 6;
I-II, Q. 54, A. 2): and its principal object is eternal happiness as
being possible to obtain by the assistance of God, as stated above
(Q. 17, A. 2).
Since then the arduous possible good cannot be an object of hope
except in so far as it is something future, it follows that when
happiness is no longer future, but present, it is incompatible with
the virtue of hope. Consequently hope, like faith, is voided in
heaven, and neither of them can be in the blessed.
Reply Obj. 1: Although Christ was a comprehensor and therefore
blessed as to the enjoyment of God, nevertheless He was, at the same
time, a wayfarer, as regards the passibility of nature, to which He
was still subject. Hence it was possible for Him to hope for the
glory of impassibility and immortality, yet not so as to have the
virtue of hope, the principal object of which is not the glory of the
body but the enjoyment of God.
Reply Obj. 2: The happiness of the saints is called eternal life,
because through enjoying God they become partakers, as it were, of
God's eternity which surpasses all time: so that the continuation of
happiness does not differ in respect of present, past and future.
Hence the blessed do not hope for the continuation of their happiness
(for as regards this there is no future), but are in actual
possession thereof.
Reply Obj. 3: So long as the virtue of hope lasts, it is by the same
hope that one hopes for one's own happiness, and for that of others.
But when hope is voided in the blessed, whereby they hoped for their
own happiness, they hope for the happiness of others indeed, yet not
by the virtue of hope, but rather by the love of charity. Even so, he
that has Divine charity, by that same charity loves his neighbor,
without having the virtue of charity, but by some other love.
Reply Obj. 4: Since hope is a theological virtue having God for its
object, its principal object is the glory of the soul, which consists
in the enjoyment of God, and not the glory of the body. Moreover,
although the glory of the body is something arduous in comparison
with human nature, yet it is not so for one who has the glory of the
soul; both because the glory of the body is a very small thing as
compared with the glory of the soul, and because one who has the
glory of the soul has already the sufficient cause of the glory of
the body.
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