Already

If hope is directed to things that we don’t yet see or possess (and it necessarily is, Hebrews 11), how can what we also already possess what we hope for?

There are a number of ways to answer that question, but Segundo Galilea puts it nicely in his Spirituality of Hope : “The project of this hope into the present generates confidence in God.  The theological tradition called it confidence in the providence of God: God will provide us in the present with everything we need to reach the future promise . . . . The future promise is inseparable from the earthly path toward it.  Hope is loved as a waiting for what has not yet arrived, and as confidence that God gives us every day everything necessary for the wait, in such a way that the wait is anticipated step by step.”