Hope for union with God

“Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire and await from God eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit to merit it and to persevere to the end of our earthly life.”

Compendium of the catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 387.

“Hope empties and withdraws the memory from all creature possessions, for as St. Paul says, hope is for that which is not possessed [Romans 8:24]. It withdraws the memory from what can be possessed and fixes it on what it hopes for. Hence only hope in God prepares the memory perfectly for union with him.”

John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Chapter 21, n.11.

“Every possession is against hope. As St. Paul says, hope is for that which is not possessed [Hebrews 11:1]. In the measure that the memory becomes dispossessed of things, in that measure it will have hope, and the more hope it has the greater will be its union with God; for in relation to God, the more a soul hopes the more it attains. And it hopes more when, precisely, it is more dispossessed of things; when it has reached perfect dispossession it will remain with perfect possession of God in divine union. But there are many who do not want to go without the sweetness and delight of this knowledge in the memory, and therefore they do not reach supreme possession and complete sweetness. For whoever does not renounce all possessions cannot be Christ’s disciple [Luke 14:33].”

John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 3, Chapter 7, n.2.

“The object of hope is something unpossessed; the less other objects are possessed, the more capacity and ability there is to hope for this one object, and consequently the more hope; the greater the possessions, the less capacity and ability for hoping, and consequently so much less of hope; accordingly, in the measure that individuals dispossess their memory of forms and objects, which are not God, they will fix it on God and preserve it empty, so as to hope for the fullness of their memory from him.”

John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 3, Chapter 15, n.1.

A final suggestion:

“What souls must do in order to live in perfect and pure hope in God is this: As often as distinct ideas, forms, and images occur to them, they should immediately, without resting in them, turn to God with loving affection, in emptiness of everything rememberable. They should not think or look on these things for longer than is sufficient for the understanding and fulfilment of their obligations, if these refer to this. And then they should consider these ideas without becoming attached or seeking gratification in them, lest the effects of them be left in the soul. Thus people are not required to stop recalling and thinking about what they must do and know, for, if they are not attached to the possession of these thoughts, they will not be harmed. The verses of the Mount in chapter 13 of the first book are helpful in this practice.”

John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 3, Chapter 15, n.1.

It is through this virtue of hope that the person aiming to do God’s will aspires and hopes for the union with God in Christ (cf., Hebrews 10:23; Titus 3:6-7). It is through this hope that the person is able to live life by “renounce[ing] and remain[ing] empty of any sensory satisfaction that is not purely for the honour and glory of God.”

John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Chapter 13, n. 3-7.

It is through this virtue of hope that the person is not discouraged during his or her conversion process in Christ: a process that involves taking off all the cinders (ablatio), so that the nobilis (the Christ impressed in us by creation and baptism) would come out (Christ expressed through our behaviour). 

“Hope sustains the person during times of abandonment.  Hope opens the person’s heart in expectation to the eternal union with God: a union which could be foreshadowed in this life. Sustained by hope, the person goes out of oneself and one’s egoism and is lead towards authentic love to God and others.“

Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1817-1821.