For Pope Francis, the hope of the Gospel “is different from the illusions founded on human calculations,” since it means “abandoning ourselves to God, learning to read the signs he gives us to discern the future, knowing how to make some bold and risky decision, even when at that moment the goal towards which it is going to lead us remains hidden.”
“It means not relying solely on human strategies, defensive strategies when it comes to reflecting on a monastery that must be saved or abandoned, on forms of community life, or on vocations,” he explained below.
According to the Pontiff, “defensive strategies are the fruit of a nostalgic return to the past; That does not work, nostalgia does not work, evangelical hope goes the other way, it gives us the joy of the history lived until today, but it makes us capable of looking to the future, with those roots that we have received.
“And that,” he emphasized, “is called preserving charisma, the illusion of moving forward, and that does work.”