Two Forms of Hopelessness
Despair and Presumption
As we saw in defining hope, for this virtue to be present the person must perceive heavenly happiness as a) something desirable and possible, and b) something not yet secure. If either of these two truths are lacking from a person’s outlook, hope will die. Hence there are two vices which are directly opposed to the second theological virtue: Despair and Presumption.
The primary threat to hope is despair. Despair isn’t just a feeling of gloominess, or depression. It’s the refusal to strive after God, the refusal to make Holiness and Heaven our primary goal and to work for it. People succumb to despair for a variety of reasons, but ultimately, the causes of despair can be narrowed down to two categories. The first is excessive self-focus. If you just look at yourself you’re going to be struck with how disproportionate your strengths are relative to the goal. In other words, if you just look at yourself you’ll only see that there’s not enough there to do what needs to be done, and you’ll end up giving up on holiness and happiness. And it’s certainly the case that what we have on our own isn’t enough, which is why we’re supposed to keep our eyes on Christ, beg for God’s mercy and strength, and realize that “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). An excellent illustration of the danger of self-focus is the story of Peter, who, as long as he kept his attention on Our Lord, was able to walk on water. When his focus switched to his own personal ability and the surrounding circumstances, he began to sink. That’s how the interplay between hope and despair works: look at Him, not at yourself.
Purifying Addiction
The second reason we despair is attachment to sin. We end up not really wanting to pursue God, because we know it’s going to mean giving up certain sins to which we’ve grown accustomed. So we choose the evil habits we’re used to over the promise of eternal joy. You are designed to be a saint. But you don’t want to be a saint because you don’t want to give up things you think you cant live without which aren’t really making you happy anyway, still you are addicted to them. What are they? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the addictions that keep you from perfect joy!
Distraction
A major symptom of despair is an inordinate need for distraction. When you make the decision to settle for mediocre pleasures, mediocre achievements, mediocre loves, you still know deep down you ought to be pursuing higher things. So you try to find some distraction to help you drown out the divine call. Do you remember what it was like to put off studying for a big test, and then tried to make up for it by spending a night in the library? When you get to the library you’re terrified about how much work you have to do, and how little time you have to do it in. You know you need to buckle down and get to the books, but instead you go into denial, trying not to think about it. You wander aimlessly around the library in desperate search of anything that’ll help you procrastinate. You read a magazine article that isn’t even interesting, you browse your social media online, you strike up a conversation with the library staff. But all the while you’re bored, and you have this sick feeling in your stomach because you know a) that the test is coming, b) you don’t know what’s going to be on it; c) you’re not ready for it.
Eradicating the Disease of Despair
That’s our society. We know we ought to spend our time on more noble aspirations, getting ready for the final accounting of judgment, but we really don’t want to talk about it, and we don’t even want to think about it. So we look for anything that can distract us, anything that can drown out the guilt. Maybe that’s why there’s so little silence today, why electronic images and sounds and games are mass-produced at an astonishing rate to occupy our minds. But it doesn’t work, we all know it doesn’t work. People are still bored, and they’re sick with worry, because they know there are pressing demands on their lives that they’re ignoring. That’s the disease of despair, that “quiet desperation” we have to eradicate in ourselves first, and then in others.
The Second Killer of Hope
Presumption is a much more infrequently discussed kind of hopelessness. It’s the vice of thinking heaven is guaranteed: “I’m as good as saved already.” This, of course, inhibits the striving after God and Heaven and greatness. If you’re already guaranteed to get in, why bother trying?
Many people suffer from presumption either because they’re too confident in themselves or because they’re confident that God will just “make everything all right” in the end. This latter error has become increasingly widespread today; it’s assumed that a good God will welcome everyone into Heaven, and that Hell does not exist.
But the fact is that God won’t force you to choose Him; He won’t drag a person into Heaven. Remember: no relationship is one-sided. And what typically happens when you take a relationship for granted? It atrophies and dies, to the point that you no longer have any desire to be with the other person. If that happens with human relationships – if spouses can wake up to each other some mornings and can’t stand each other, because they’ve never put any work into the relationship – why shouldn’t it happen in your relationship with God?
Why is it so impossible that you should wake up from the sleep of death and find out that you don’t love God, you don’t even like God, and you don’t want to spend eternity with Him? And that’s what Hell is, the free decision to live through eternity apart from God. And it is real, we can choose it, and we can go there forever. That’s why it’s so dangerous to say, “Once saved, always saved,” or to deny the existence of Hell, or to take your faith for granted. That stuff will keep you from working for heaven and prevent you from seeking repentance and the removal of sin. Presumption can be just as deadly as despair, for both stop the vital enthusiasm of hope.