In the mystery of his Incarnation, the Son took flesh in the womb of a Virgin and thus united our human nature to his divine nature. By his saving actions, the God-man Jesus Christ leavens our humanity with the divine ingredient of hope that it might be raised up to the place prepared for it from all eternity: the Father’s house, the Kingdom of God, the Heavenly Jerusalem
This is part of a series entitled, “The Reason for Our Hope.” Read the series introduction here. To see other posts in the series, click here.
Hope makes us hunger for heaven. Like a warm, freshly baked loaf of bread, hope excites in us a raging appetite for the possession of that infinite and unchanging Good that will fulfill our every desire. Hope, like the leaven in the bread, is that divine ingredient in the work of our salvation that raises us, soul and body, to “the heavenly places,” where Christ, the fulfillment of our hope, “is seated at the right hand of God” (Eph 2:6; Col 3:1). For this very reason, the Eternal Father sent the Eternal Son into the world.
In the mystery of his Incarnation, the Son took flesh in the womb of a Virgin and thus united our human nature to his divine nature. In him, our human nature suffered, died, rose, and ascended. By his saving actions, the God-man Jesus Christ leavens our humanity with the divine ingredient of hope that it might be raised up to the place prepared for it from all eternity: the Father’s house, the Kingdom of God, the Heavenly Jerusalem (c.f. John 14:2-3; Matt 25:34; Rev 21:2). The sacraments are how God leavens our souls here and now.
In baptism, God incorporates us into the Body of his Son, and we are “born again to a living hope” (1 Pet 1:3). In the Eucharist, by the eating of that same Body, we are preserved from death (John 6:54). By the Sacraments, our souls are infused with the supernatural power to desire God as the Supreme Good, that Good which, when possessed, leaves nothing left to be desired. The hope-filled soul, then, is ravenous. It has lost its taste for everything that is not the infinite banquet of God Himself. For some Christians, like Saint Paul, the bands of God’s will seem to be the only thing that keeps their hungry soul from separating from their body: “I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and to be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you” (Phil 1:23-24).
But, hope is not just for the soul. Hope is so powerful of a leaven that it not only raises the soul, it also raises the body. This is the reason why the Psalmist says: “In you my God, my body will rest in hope” (Ps 16:9). The body of a Christian who dies in friendship with the Lord rests in anticipation of “the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). It, too, hungers to be with its Lord. It awaits the sound of the angel’s trumpet to rise from corruptibility to incorruptibility: “what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
It is then, when the bodies and souls of the just have been reunited and are in possession of their Lord and God when the Scripture will be fulfilled: “He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them” (Rev 21:3). In heaven, we will be forever sated by the wedding feast of the Lamb. That food, the reason for our Hope, is Jesus Christ himself.
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Republished with gracious permission from Dominicana (March 2025).
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Photo by Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)
