Summa summae S. Thomae, Tomus III

1° : Hope remains in all faithful wayfarers, even in sinners who do not despair or presume.

Proof. 1° because the Council of Trent, session VI, chapter 6 and canon 3, and session XIV, chapter 4, requires hope in sinners who dispose themselves to justification. St. Thomas, in the preceding question 17, a. 8, teaches that hope, in the order of generation, precedes charity, and in Ia IIae, q. 65, a. 4, that faith and hope can exist without charity.

2° A habit is destroyed either accidentally, by the destruction of its foundation, or per se by its contrary, or by the destruction of its object. Yet the foundation of hope, which is faith, remains in faithful sinners, and sins of any kind, except despair and presumption, are not contrary to hope; there remains also the formal object quod of hope, namely future beatitude arduous and possible, and the formal object quo, at least assisting omnipotence. For although a sinner cannot hope to attain beatitude while remaining in the same state, he can nevertheless hope, by the assistance of omnipotence, to change his state, and, once it is changed, to obtain beatitude through grace and charity.

[I said 1° : « In all faithful wayfarers, » because in heretics, since in them the foundation of hope, which is faith, is destroyed, hope also is destroyed; hence, although they may seem to hope, their hope is not theological, but human and false.

I said 2° : « Who do not despair or presume, » because despair and presumption are contrary to hope: of these below.]

I say 2° : In the damned hope does not remain, but it does remain in the souls in Purgatory. ¹

Proof. of the first part. Hope is concerned with future beatitude as possible. Yet it belongs to the condition of the misery of the damned that they know that they can in no way escape damnation and arrive at beatitude. Therefore.

It is confirmed. Hope is founded on faith. Yet faith does not remain in the damned, as we said in the treatise on Faith, dissertation IV, article 2, On those having faith, I say 2°. Therefore neither does hope.

Proof. of the second part. With respect to the souls in Purgatory, beatitude is still absent, arduous, and to be attained through grievous punishments, and thus it is the object of hope.

I say 3° : Theological hope, neither as to its act nor as to its habit, remains in the blessed. ²

Proof. 1° from the Apostle, Rom., VIII, 24, who says : Hope that is seen is not hope; for what does a man see, why doth he hope?

Proof. 2°. When that which gives the species is removed, the species is dissolved, and the same thing cannot remain. ³ Yet in the blessed the formal object from which hope has its species is removed. Therefore. — Proof of the minor. The formal object of hope is future beatitude not yet possessed. Therefore in the blessed, etc. Hence, although the blessed still seem to hope for something, either for themselves, as the glory of the body, or for others, as essential beatitude itself, it is not theological hope, but hope commonly and broadly so called, or rather desire flowing from the love of charity.

[You will ask whether fear joined to hope is good.

I answer. A fourfold fear is distinguished : human, servile, filial, and initial. ⁴

1° Human or worldly fear is the flight from temporal evil through offense against God. It is mortally or venially evil, according as it leads into mortal or venial sin. Hence that saying, Matt., X, 28 : Do not be afraid of those who kill the body. And, Luc., IX, 26 : Whoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him the Son of man shall be ashamed. Nevertheless, just as evil love of temporal things does not constitute a particular species of vice, but wanders generically through all the vices; so too, proportion being kept, human fear, considered absolutely.

2° Servile fear of God is the flight from sin out of dread of the punishment to be inflicted by God. It is twofold : 1° Fear servilely or formally servile, by which only the punishment is dreaded, without the mind pursuing guilt with hatred; so that a man would wish to sin if no punishment impended. This fear is evil and vicious, both because it does not exclude the will to sin, and because it holds the punishment of sin dearer than the guilt itself. 2° Fear servile only materially, by which the mind truly turns away from guilt on account of punishment indeed, yet is not so disposed that it would commit sin if the punishment were absent. This latter fear corresponds to the virtue of hope, and it is good, though not perfect; for it arises from a well-ordered love of self. Hence Christ the Lord, Luc., XII, 5 : I will show you whom you shall fear. Fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him. And the Council of Trent, session VI, canon 8 : « If anyone shall say that the fear of hell, through which we take refuge in the mercy of God with sorrow for sins, or abstain from sinning, is a sin, or makes sinners worse : let him be anathema. »

3° Filial, or chaste, fear is the fear of sin, in order to avoid offending God. « It belongs to sons to fear the offense of a father, » says the Angelic Doctor ⁵. This fear is most excellent, because it arises from charity; indeed it grows as charity grows; for the more one loves God, the more one fears to displease him by sin. Such fear wonderfully aids hope, since the more we shrink from offending God and distrust our own strength, the greater reason we have for hoping.

4° Initial fear is the flight from sin primarily as it is the evil of guilt, secondarily as it is the cause of punishment. It is called initial, 1° because it belongs to those beginning to walk in the way of God's commandments; for they are led partly by love of virtue, partly by dread of punishment; 2° because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Ps. cx, 10.]