«“Spes non confundit”, “hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5). (…) Hope constitutes the central message of the next Jubilee, which according to an ancient tradition, the Pope convokes every twenty-five years». These words of the Bull of Convocation to the Jubilee year in which we live, invite a reflection on hope.

On the one hand, hope is recognized as an affective state that involves the components of the human person: the somatic and the emotional spheres, intimately intertwined. In fact, according to current health sciences; those who suffer from emotional depression, usually suffer from a decrease in their somatic immunological resources.

According to Professor Juan Manuel Burgos, in his book: “Brief Anthropology” (2010); each person consists of three components that allow us to understand their being, their self: the corporeal, the psychic, and the spiritual. The spiritual component is made up of the faculties of intelligence and will, with their eminent property: personal freedom. Through this, each one of us is capable of making decisions about ourselves, self-determining to a great extent.

According to classical knowledge, the attraction experienced towards a good that is difficult to achieve, or an evil that is difficult to avoid; is called hope. Whoever has it appreciates, in one way or another, that it is worth facing what is immediately unpleasant, to later achieve the enjoyment of what is, ultimately, more valuable.

Hope as an operative habit – a stable disposition acquired by one’s own decision in acting – has been studied especially by the German philosopher Josef Pieper (1904-1997). The compendium of several of his works entitled: “The fundamental virtues” is an example. There, hope is mentioned 205 times. Pieper is considered one of the first modern philosophers to explore the idea of ​​hope in human life, as stated by one of his scholars, Bernard N. Schumacher, in his 2003 book: “A Philosophy of Hope: Josef Pieper and the Contemporary Debate on Hope.”

Following Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, it can be said that hope—virtue—consists of a happy medium when acting, established by right reason, in the way that an ethically excellent person would act. The happy medium referred to is between two opposite vices: hopelessness and presumption.

Hopelessness—a vice by default, with respect to hope—is the habitual disposition to reject what is difficult, along with everything that is required to achieve it; preferring, instead, what offers immediate rewards.

Presumption, on the other hand, is the habit of estimating that future goods are very easy to obtain. Therefore, it is not necessary to make a greater effort to achieve them. It is a vice of excess relative to hope, since it is rooted in the habit of not noticing difficulties where there really are.

As we have noted, hope has as its object what is to come, what has not yet arrived. To be correctly disposed to achieve this, we require prudence.

Prudence has its origin in the Latin words “pro” (prefix indicating: forward) and “videntia” (vision). From here: providence, deriving from prudentia. Prudence is someone who knows how to discern what is necessary to move forward in achieving what is convenient.

Prudence is a disposition of the practical intellect that consists of the ability to, through the execution of certain concrete acts, really achieve that good end that is the object of an intention.

In his famous Etymologies (VIII, 2, 5), Saint Isidore of Seville maintains that hope – in Latin: “spes” – owes its name to the fact that it is like the foot for walking, for heading towards the goal. As if to say: “it is foot” (in Latin: est pes). Where “foot” means “pes” in Latin. The opposite of hope – continues Isidore – is despair, because where the feet are missing (deesse pedes) there is no possibility of walking.

Evoking the Father and Doctor of the Church, Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636), venerated as the patron saint of humanists: philologists, philosophers, historians and geographers; we hope to have firm, sure feet, to walk forward with hope, in this jubilee year 2025.