VATICAN:The Spe Salvi papal letter acknowledges the 'present-day crisis of faith', writes Paddy Agnew
There is an "undoing" of past suffering, a reparation that sets things aright. For this reason, faith in the Last Judgment is first and foremost hope. Thus writes Pope Benedict XVI in his second encyclical, "Spe Salvi" presented to the world's media in the Vatican yesterday.
Mainly written during last spring and summer, Pope Benedict's encyclical takes its title from the Letter of St Paul to the Romans (Rom. 8,24), "Spe Salvi Facti Sumus" (In Hope We Are Saved).
In what is a complex and lengthy document, the pope's essential message is quite clear: "To come to know God - the true God - means to receive hope. According to the Christian faith, 'redemption' - salvation - is not simply a given. Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present."
In his analysis of Christian hope, the pope argues that Jesus did not bring a message of "social revolution", nor was he engaged "in a fight for political liberation". Rather, Jesus brought something totally different: "[ He brought] an encounter with the living God, an encounter with a hope stronger than the sufferings of slavery, a hope which therefore transformed life and the world from within, even if external structures remained unaltered."
The pope acknowledges a "present-day crisis of faith", calling it "essentially a crisis of Christian hope", adding: "Perhaps many people reject the faith today simply because they do not find the prospect of eternal life attractive. What they desire is not eternal life at all, but this present life, for which faith in eternal life seems something of an impediment."
Reflecting on the scientific and technical progress made by man, the pope argues that for much of the 19th century, "hope" became a "faith in progress", founded on the twin pillars of reason and freedom and from which, it was hoped, the "kingdom of man" would emerge.
The French and Marxist revolutions were "two essential stages in the political realisation of this hope", two stages that flattered only to deceive.
"First there is the French Revolution. To begin with, the Europe of the Enlightenment looked on with fascination at these events, but then, as they developed, had cause to reflect anew on reason and freedom."
With the advance of industrialisation in the 19th century, there emerged an "industrial proletariat" whose "dreadful living conditions" prompted a revolution.
"Karl Marx took up the rallying call and applied his incisive language and intellect to the task of launching this major new and, as he thought, definitive step in history towards salvation.
"Together with the victory of the revolution, though, Marx's fundamental error also became evident. He thought that once the economy had been put right, everything would automatically be put right. His real error is materialism: man, in fact, is not merely the product of economic conditions, and it is not possible to redeem him from the outside purely by creating a favourable economic environment."
In a text that touches on key church figures such as St Thomas Aquinas, St Ambrose and St Augustine, the pope also finds space for the Vietnamese Jesuit Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan, who died two years ago. During 13 years in prison, nine of them in solitary confinement, Cardinal Van Thuan found hope in prayer: "In a situation of seemingly utter hopelessness, the fact that he could speak and listen to God became for him an increasing power of hope which enabled him, after his release, to become a witness to hope."
In conclusion, the pope writes that the question of justice "constitutes the essential argument in favour of faith in eternal life", adding: "[ It is impossible] that the injustice of history should be the final word. God is justice and God creates justice. Evildoers, in the end, do not sit at table at the eternal banquet beside their victims without distinction, as though nothing had happened."
In presenting the new encyclical yesterday, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi was unable to confirm media speculation that the pope will shortly publish a third encyclical on the theme of faith.