Holy Week 2019

This whole week has me thinking about Faith, Hope, and Love.
What is hope?

Noun plural noun:hopes

1. a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
   “he looked through her belongings in the hope of coming across some information”
   Synonyms: aspiration, desire, wish, expectation, ambition, aim, plan, dream, daydream, pipe dream, longing, yearning, craving, hankering
2. a feeling of trust.

Verb

third person present: hopes; past tense: hoped; past participle: hoped; present participle: hoping

1. want something to happen or be the case.
   “he’s hoping for an offer of compensation”
   Synonyms: expect, anticipate, look for, wait for, be hopeful of, pin one’s hopes on, want, wish for, dream of, hope against hope for
   Antonyms: despair of

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

Why is hope so essential for life? Seems we humans are built to expect/desire something more than what we presently have, something beyond us. Is that why riches just covet more riches? A lot is never enough because we need to expect ‘more’? As a verb hope is a feeling of Trust.

Noun

1. firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.
   “relations have to be built on trust”
   Synonyms: confidence, belief, faith, freedom from suspicion/doubt, sureness, certainty, certitude, assurance, conviction, credence, reliance

…

Verb third person present: trusts; past tense: trusted; past participle: trusted; present participle: trusting

1. believe in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of.
   “I should never have trusted her”
   Synonyms: have faith in, put/place one’s trust in, have (every) confidence in, believe in, pin one’s hopes/faith on, rely on, depend on, bank on, count on, be sure of, be convinced by, swear by, confide in
   antonymsdistrust, mistrust, doubt

So trust and hope are very similar. What about Faith?

Noun

1. complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
   “this restores one’s faith in politicians”
   Synonyms: trust, belief, confidence, conviction, credence, reliance, dependence, optimism, hopefulness, hope, expectation
   Antonyms: mistrust
2. strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.
   Synonyms: religion, church, sect, denomination, persuasion, religious persuasion, religious belief, belief, code of belief, ideology, creed, teaching, dogma, doctrine

In order to have faith you must trust. And if you trust someone you would have faith in them. I think, perhaps, trust is built on some kind of concrete evidence whereas faith is present without any evidence (or perhaps sometimes with evidence to the contrary).Can you have faith without hope? What would that look like? I don’t know about this. Could you have confidence in someone/thing without expectation of something, even a future? I think likely not.

Or can you have hope without faith? “Hope against hope: cling to mere possibility” —  A desire for something without any confidence that it will come to pass. My answer today is yes.

And now love.
Can you have love without faith? Yes.
Can you have love without hope? Yes.
Can you have love without trust? Yes.

So the greatest of these is love.