Father which is in heaven.” – Matthew 5:16)
Every graduate hopes to make a difference in the world. The hope of New
Church education is that our students do this by answering the call to become
disciples for the Lord just in the way they live their lives – with wisdom and
spiritual purpose.
More than 2,000 years ago Plato said there are only two questions that
really matter to civilization. Those questions are as essential now as they were
then: “Who is teaching the children? And what are they teaching them?”
The best answers we have are with New Church education.
(BMH)
new church virtues: hope
Hope is a gift from God and an essential part of human thought. It serves an
important use, and is something we need.
Hope is a mental vision of some longed-for future condition, such as the
end of conflict and a state of peace, a happy home, renewed health, a satisfying
job, a comfortable retirement. Hope’s vision gives us something to strive for.
“It is reason’s essential delight to see from love the effect in the thought ...
before the effect is reached, that is, not in the present but in the future. This is
the source of what is called Hope.” (Divine Providence 178)
Since hope is “reason’s essential delight,” and since one of the keys to
forming the New Church in us is the “cultivation of the rational” (Apocalypse
Explained 732), it follows that cultivating hope is an essential element of our
religion.
And note that it is “from love” that reason sees. The quality of our hopes
is determined by the quality of the loves from which they spring. The more we
regenerate and are inspired by heavenly affections, the higher our hopes will
be.
Some hopes are said to be “vain.” And isn’t it interesting that the word
“vain” can mean either “conceited” and “egocentric,” or “useless” and “futile.”
The self-centered and worldly hopes we set our hearts upon are vain hopes.
Even if some are attained, the things of this world (“where moth and rust
destroy, and thieves break in and steal”) soon pass away.
Spiritual hopes are more realistic because spiritual things are more real
and lasting than earthly ones; and also because the governing force of all
creation, Divine providence, is ever striving to make us spiritual. A hope for
something the Lord wants us to have – some heavenly virtue or delight – will
never be in vain.
Such hopes may not be fulfilled during our lives in this world, but they
serve an important purpose nonetheless. The hope for marriage is a prime
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