Ultimate Hope

As I’ve considered the three great Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity spoken of so powerfully by Paul, Mormon, and Moroni, I think that I have subconsciously considered hope as being inferior to the other two.  Faith is the great power by which the worlds were made and by which mountains are moved; charity is greatest of all attributes and embodied in the perfect love of the Savior; and hope, well, I hope the weather tomorrow is going to be good.  As I read Ether 12 today, though, I realized that Moroni gives hope no diminished status or secondary place among the three—hope is every bit as needed as the other two and received significant focus from Moroni as he explored how “faith, hope and charity bringeth unto [God]—the fountain of all righteousness” (Ether 12:28). 

               The importance of hope and its place of prominence among the Christian virtues was stated from the outset of this marvelous chapter on coming unto Christ: “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God” (Ether 12:4).  Hope is not simply a side note to faith, but hope is built upon faith; hope, as Moroni taught here, comes after we have a firm faith in Christ.  Moroni promised that “ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith,” suggesting again that faith precedes hope (Ether 12:9).  To develop true hope we must first have real faith in Christ.  And that hope, which is founded in an assurance of eternal life at the right hand of God, leads us to be “sure and steadfast” and to be “anchored” in good works in this life.  A witness of our potential in the world to come and of God’s willingness to give us a place with Him—a “hope for a better world”—leads us to rock solid faithfulness to God in this life.  We can get through anything if we have true hope in the Savior’s promises to us for the life to come.  It is fitting in my mind that the text leaves it unclear as to who the originator of these words in verse 4 was: it could have been either Ether or Moroni, or perhaps Moroni’s paraphrasing of what Ether taught.  But surely both of those two prophets who remained faithful amidst the entire destruction of their peoples were in desperate need of hope for a better world since each of their worlds literally self-destructed.  They remained faithful to the end, despite being completely alone in mortal terms, because they had divine hope in the place they would have with God in the world to come.  That “ultimate hope,” as Elder Maxwell described it, brings steadfastness and a life of good works, even amidst the most serious of challenges.

               The progression of Ether 12 is really one in which Moroni’s own hope became cemented in the Lord and His promises.  As he wrote of the great faith of those who had proceeded him, he started to worry that he was not good enough; he wavered in his hope that his contribution  to sacred writ was adequate: “The Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing….  When we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words” (Ether 12:23, 25).  But as the Lord taught him true doctrine about the power of humility and coming unto the Savior, Moroni’s hope in those things he could control—his faithfulness that would lead to his return to the Father—was shored up and he declared, “I also remember that thou hast said that thou hast prepared a house for man, yea, even among the mansions of thy Father, in which man might have a more excellent hope; wherefore man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared” (Ether 12:32).  Hope, Moroni taught, is not an optional good quality we might want to develop; no, like faith it is essential for all who want an inheritance in the Father’s kingdom.  As he would later quote his father as saying, we must have “hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal” (Moroni 7:41).  It is that kind of ultimate hope in Christ and His atonement and the resurrection which will fortify our faithfulness that we must strive to develop in mortality—and it takes no backseat to the equally vital quest for faith and charity.