Now hope too has its straits, whether you consider the greatness of the reward or our own littleness. For if someone were to command an unlettered rustic, who has no experience of human affairs, to hope that he would soon possess the wisdom of Solomon, or at least of Plato and Aristotle, and together with it the empire of Alexander the Great or of Augustus — when, I ask, could such a man be persuaded to hope for things so great, small as he is? Yet this is far easier than for a mortal man to hope for the wisdom and power of the Angels who are in heaven and are pure intelligences. For that rustic, and Alexander, and Aristotle were of the same nature; all were mortal men; the wisdom of Aristotle did not transcend human wisdom, and the empire of Alexander did not occupy even a third part of the earth. But the hope of the faithful bids them hope for equality with the Angels, the Lord saying: They that shall be accounted worthy of that world and of the resurrection from the dead shall neither marry nor take wives; neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the Angels, and are the children of God (Luke 20:35-36). And if someone were to command a man who creeps upon the ground to hope that he would soon fly through the air, or remain in the waters for a long time and run this way and that, when could he be brought to hope for such things? And yet even large birds — cranes, storks, eagles — fly most swiftly through the air; and the heaviest laden ships rest upon the waters, or run and course through the waters wherever the sailors wish. But the hope of Christians, without any ambiguity, commands the Christian man to hope even with his body that he will ascend above the heavens, that he will descend from heaven to earth without any danger of falling, and that in the race from rising to setting he will contend with the sun itself and without doubt will conquer it. Finally, if a poor orphan were told to hope that a great king unknown to him would adopt him as a son, he would surely labor greatly to be able to hope that this could ever happen; and yet both are men, sons of the earth and subject to death. But Christian hope teaches that any man whatsoever, provided he is baptized in Christ and keeps Christ's commandments, will receive from God the spirit of adoption, will truly be enrolled as a son, and will be heir of all that God Himself possesses (Rom. 8:17), and co-heir of Christ — who is the natural and true Son, and whom the Father appointed heir of all things (Heb. 1:2).
If this hope, so great and so exalted, were cherished and held fast by Christians as it ought to be, it would surely make them fearless as lions, so that they would yield to no dangers and no terrors, and would say with the Prophet: The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man can do to me (Ps. 117:6); and: If armies stand arrayed against me, my heart shall not fear (Ps. 26:3); and with the Apostle: I can do all things in Him who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13); and: If God is for us, who is against us? (Rom. 8:31). But very few are those who hope for things so arduous as they ought, since very many are found who do not hope even for small and temporal things from God, and who trust more in their own cunning, in thefts, and in lies than in the help of the Most High. The Lord Himself in Matthew (Matt. 6:26) and in Luke (Luke 12:24) admonished the faithful with most beautiful comparisons not to be over-anxious about seeking food and clothing, since the heavenly Father, who feeds the little birds that neither sow nor reap, and clothes the lilies of the field that neither labor nor spin, will much more provide for His own children, for whom He keeps an eternal kingdom; and yet so small, and almost none, is the confidence in God found in most Christians that often in their distress they flee to human frauds, or even to diabolical arts, rather than to God. Therefore, if they do not hope from God for the things which God gives to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, and which He promises He will give them if they place their hope in Him, it is a strong proof that in such souls there is no room for that hope which is proper to the children of God, who hope from God for a share in the everlasting kingdom. And since without a sure and living hope, which is a part of the gate of the heavenly house, no one enters unto salvation, for this reason not many are saved.
But there are also other, greater straits in the virtue of hope. For Christian hope commands that present things, which are seen, be despised, and that future things, which are not seen, be desired with the whole heart and with all one's strength; it commands us to scatter our goods and give to the poor, so that they may be restored to us multiplied in the heavens — where no one has gone who has seen them, and no one is able to conceive or even suspect what those goods are that will be repaid to us in heaven if ours are sown on earth. And indeed the rustic is easily persuaded to scatter wheat by sowing it into the ground, because the practice of many years has taught him that what is sown with labor is reaped with rejoicing; but that what is scattered to the poor is gathered, multiplied, in the heavens — no experience has taught this. Therefore it seems difficult to men to let go of present things, which are seen, and to hope for future things, which are not seen.
Finally, it is a strong proof that firm confidence in God is a most narrow gate, that so great a crowd of the wretched is found everywhere — mourning, crying out, blaspheming, despairing. For to those who trust in Him, God either removes their miseries or grants patience joined with so great a consolation that they can say with the Apostle: I am filled with comfort; I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation (2 Cor. 7:4). That crowd, therefore, of those who mourn and weep in their miseries is proof — as St. Basil writes on the Forty-fifth Psalm — that many have on their lips, Our God is our refuge and strength, but very few have it in their hearts and truly and from the soul hope in God.