ADVENT REFLECTION: All Leads Back To Hope by R. W. Church

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three. (1 Corinthians 13:13) “Faith, hope, love”; these, in Saint Paul’s analysis, are the characteristic elements of the Christian mind.  Saint Paul, as we know, in enumerating them, makes one of them the greatest, in order and in nature – “the greatest of these is love.”  But it is a first and foremost place among equals.  All stand together, as nothing else does, in the front rank of the perfections which make Christian goodness.  All are equally indispensable in those who would please God and follow Christ. But why should hope be ranked so high, placed on a level with faith and love?  We can understand why faith should be so singled out; it is the foundation of the whole structure of religion; it is the bond between the creature and the invisible Maker and God; it is the special title of our acceptance; it is the ground of our self-devotion and obedience, of our highest and noblest ventures.  Still more can we understand it of love, for love brings us near in the essential qualities of character to the one we believe in and worship.  Love is the faint and distant [...]