In his homily at Santa Marta, Pope Francis explained that hope is not an abstract idea but an encounter with Jesus. He said it can be compared to a pregnant woman who wants to meet the baby living in her womb. <\/p>\n
POPE FRANCIS<\/strong> Lastly, Pope Francis remembered that hope never disappoints, because it directs us toward an eternal happiness.<\/p>\n EXTRACTS OF PAPAL HOMILY<\/strong><\/p>\n Living in hope is journeying towards a reward, yes, toward a happiness that we do not have but we will have there. It is a difficult virtue to understand. It is a humble virtue, very humble. It is a virtue that never disappoints: if you hope, you will never be disappointed. Never, never. It is also a concrete virtue. \u201cBut how can it be concrete,\u201d [you ask,] \u201cif I don\u2019t know heaven, or what awaits me there?\u201d Hope, our inheritance which is hope directed towards something, is not an idea, it is not being in a good place\u2026 no. It is an encounter. Jesus always emphasizes this part of hope, this living in expectation, encountering.\u201d<\/p>\n Something comes to mind, when I think of hope, an image: a pregnant woman, a woman expecting a child. She goes to the doctor, she sees the ultrasound. [Is she indifferent? Does she say,] \u201cOh look, a baby. Ok.\u201d No! She rejoices! And every day she touches her belly to caress that child, in anticipation of that child, living in anticipation of that son. This image can help us understand what hope is: living for that encounter. That woman imagines what her son\u2019s eyes will be like, what his smile will be like, whether he\u2019ll be blonde or dark-haired\u2026 but she imagines meeting her son. She imagines meeting her son. <\/p>\n \u201cDo I hope like this, concretely, or is my hope a little dispersed, a little gnostic?\u201d Hope is concrete, it is an everyday thing, because it is an encounter. And every time we encounter Jesus in the Eucharist, in prayer, in the Gospel, in the poor, in the life of the community, every time we take another step toward this definitive encounter. [This is] the wisdom of knowing how to rejoice in the little encounters of daily life with Jesus, preparing for that definitive encounter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October 23, 2018. He compared Christian hope with the feeling of a pregnant woman waiting for her child to be born.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":27293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/8h7D9bS8XJE","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bstamarta2310eng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bstamarta2310int.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cSomething comes to mind, when I think of hope, an image: a pregnant woman, a woman expecting a child. She goes to the doctor, she sees the ultrasound. She doesn't say, 'Oh look, a baby. Ok.' No! She rejoices! Every day she touches her belly to caress that child, in anticipation of that child, living in anticipation of that child. This image can help us understand what hope is: living for that encounter.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n