Hope and prophecy

 Can there be legitimate prophecy about history? This is the question that opens the last chapter/lecture in Josef Pieper's short book Hope and History.

Christianity answers this with a clear yes. For example, among its sacred texts is the prophetic book of Revelation (the Apocalypse), and in it, (although not in it alone) there are assertions about the ultimate future of historical man - not so much, then, about how history will continue but rather about how it will end.

Josef Pieper points out that the acceptance of such a revealed prophecy presupposes that human existence takes place within a framework that reaches beyond what we can immediately sense in this world, and which, in that sense remains beyond an empirical grasp; and in the same sense the beginning and end of human history and individual human biography remain beyond empirical grasp. He also reprises what he has already referred to in previous chapters/lectures that attempts to develop and understanding of the future of human history in terms only of this world fall down in the face of the reality of the death of men.

Josef Pieper gives the following account of the image of history conveyed by the Apocalypse:

Since this conception takes account of human freedom to choose evil and also of "the" evil as a dark and demonic historical force - for that reason alone, dissension, breakdown, irreconcilable conflict, and even catastrophe cannot, in principle, be alien to the nature of  human history, including its everyday course of events.

And yet this is not the last word of apocalyptic prophecy. Its last word and its decisive report, all else notwithstanding, is the following: a blessed end, infinitely surpassing all expectations; triumph over evil; the conquest of death; drinking from the fountain of life; resurrection; drying of all tears; the dwelling of God among men; a New Heaven and a New Earth. What all this would appear to imply about hope, however, is that it has an invulnerability sufficient to place it beyond any possibility of being affected, or even crippled, by preparedness for an intra-historically catastrophic end - whether that end be called dying, defeat of the good, martyrdom, or world domination by evil.

 At one point, Josef Pieper draws attention to the "implicit faith" that St Thomas Aquinas attributes to those who, though not being explicit Christian believers, have some conviction that God will set men free (S Th II, ii, 2, 7 ad 3). Josef Pieper writes:

In precise correspondence to this, one should also, it seems to me, speak of an "implicit hope". Whoever, for instance, invests the power of his hope in the image of a perfect future human society, in which men are no longer wolves to each other and the good things of life are justly distributed - such a one participates, precisely thereby, in the hope of Christianity.

In a not dissimilar way, Josef Pieper also suggests that any efforts towards human fraternity have a link to the hope of Christianity. He refers first to Plato's thought with regard to the dwelling together of gods and men, and their shared banquet:

But Plato would never have been able to dream of the communal banquet in which Christianity recognizes and celebrates the real beginning and pledge of that blessed life at God's table. Since earliest times it has been called synaxis, or communio....

A more profound grounding for human solidarity cannot, it seems to me, be conceived. But the reverse also holds true: wherever true human communion is realized, or even just longed for, this universal table community is, whether one knows and likes it or not, quietly being prepared ...No matter where and by whom the realization of fraternity among men is understood and pursued as the thing that is truly to be hoped for, there exists, eo ipso, a subterranean link to the elementary hope of Christianity.

It is perhaps worth recalling, during this Jubilee Year dedicated to the theme of hope, the significance of the prayer that occurs in the Eucharistic Liturgy immediately after the Lord's Prayer. We can read it against the background of the view of apocalyptic prophecy described above by Josef Pieper: 

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.