Hope is an 'active virtue' that makes good things happen, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The "most beautiful gift" the Catholic Church and its members can give the world is a reason to live with hope, Pope Francis said.

"The Christian cannot be satisfied with having hope; he or she must also radiate hope, be a sower of hope," the pope said at his weekly general audience Dec. 11.

Speaking to thousands of visitors and pilgrims in the Vatican audience hall, the pope said he was concluding the series of audience talks that he began in May reflecting on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church.

"The Holy Spirit is the ever-gushing source of Christian hope," the pope said, pointing to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, which says, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

"If the church is a boat," Pope Francis said, "the Holy Spirit is the sail that propels it and lets it advance on the sea of history, today as in the past!"

At the end of his audience, the pope also expressed his hopes for peace and harmony in Syria after the fall of President Bashar Assad.

Saying he was following the news about Syria "at this delicate moment in its history," Pope Francis prayed Syrians could establish a new government without further conflict.

"I pray through the intercession of the Virgin Mary that the Syrian people may live in peace and security in their beloved land," he said, "and that the different religions may walk together in friendship and mutual respect for the good of the nation, which has been afflicted by years of war."

In his main talk, the pope brought together the Advent hope for the coming of the Lord and the theme of the upcoming Holy Year, which is "Pilgrims of hope."

For Christians, he said, "hope is not an empty word, or a vague desire of ours that things may turn out for the best; it is a certainty, because it is founded on God's fidelity to his promises. This is why it is called a theological virtue: because it is infused by God and has God as its guarantor."

Hope also is not "a passive virtue, which merely waits for things to happen," the pope said. Rather, "it is a supremely active virtue that helps make them happen."

Pope Francis cited an unnamed writer who explained that the Holy Spirit, bearer of hope, "is the strength given to those who have no strength. He leads the struggle for the emancipation and full realization of the people of the oppressed."

At the same time, the pope said, Christian hope should be shared "with gentleness and reverence," as the First Letter of Peter says, "because it is not so much the strength of the arguments that will convince people, but rather the love that we know how to put in them. This is the first and most effective form of evangelization."