Our Holy Father Gregory the Wonderworker, Bishop of Neocaesarea (270-75); Passing into Eternal Life (1947) of Blessed Josaphat Kotsylovsky, Bishop of Peremyshl and Martyr
Nativity Fast
1 Thessalonians 5:1-8; Luke 11:47-12:1
Read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-8
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
Hope is a curious thing. It can be understood as a mere wish, like hoping for a reasonable-sized pickerel on a fishing trip. It can be a dream of trusting the teachings of certain financial risk takers as shown on television – only to be found that one gets taken advantage of in the process. Hope can be thought of as optimism, that things will go well for me and for others.
For St Paul, however, he means the opposite, especially of the last definition. When trials come along in life, hope is not understood as just looking for greener grass on the other side of the fence. As Nathan Eubank writes, “[hope] is a God-given habit of mind that produces joy in the midst of suffering. It is characterized by endurance or patience, providing confidence that God has conquered death through Christ.”
The helmet of hope in salvation is already placed upon the Church. Let us each, a member of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, realize this and live thereunder.