Lent 2026 - Reading #37 - Hope
Reading
The apostle Paul writes to the Romans about hope in the midst of suffering: "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:3-5). Paul continues: "For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience" (Romans 8:24-25). And later: "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). Paul traces a remarkable progression: suffering leads not to despair but, through endurance and character, to hope itself. And this hope is not wishful thinking but a settled confidence grounded in the love of God, a love so powerful that nothing in all creation can overcome it.
Reflection
Thirty-nine days into our Lenten journey, Paul gives us the paradox at the heart of Christian hope: it is born from suffering. This is not masochism; it is the testimony of a man who was beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, and left for dead, and who nevertheless wrote some of the most hope-filled words in human history. Paul's hope was not maintained despite his suffering but forged through it. The progression Paul traces, suffering to endurance to character to hope, is exactly what Lent has been doing to us. The fasting, the prayer, the self-examination, the honest confrontation with our own weakness, all of it has been producing endurance. That endurance has been building character. And character, over these weeks, has been opening into hope. If you have been faithful to this Lenten pilgrimage, you are not the same person who received ashes six weeks ago. Something has been forged in you. And here is the most extraordinary thing: Paul does not say hope leads to some further achievement. He says hope leads to love, "God's love has been poured into our hearts." Hope opens us to receive the very thing that crowns all the virtues: the love of God. We are almost there. One more week of hope, and then Holy Week, the week of charity, the week of love, the week when the whole journey reaches its climax in the cross and the empty tomb. Nothing can separate us from this love. Nothing. Hold on to that.