15. What, then, is Christian hope?
Christian hope is a virtue infused into our souls, by which we most confidently expect all the things which God has promised us through the merits of Jesus Christ.
16. May every sinner hope for pardon?
Yes, every sinner, even the greatest, may and ought to hope for pardon, provided he will be converted with all his heart, and do penance.
'If the wicked do penance for all Ms sins which he has committed, and keep all my Commandments, living he shall live, and shall not die' (Ez. xviii, 21). — Examples: The Ninivites, Mary Magdalen, the Thief on the Cross, and others. Parable of the Lost Sheep and of the Prodigal Son (Luke xv.).
17. How far may we also expect temporal goods from God?
As far as they help us, or at least do not hinder us, to obtain eternal salvation.
18. When do we sin by presumption and false confidence?
1. When, relying on the mercy of God, we continue to sin without fear, or delay our repentance to the end of our life; 2. When we rashly expose ourselves to a danger from which we confidently expect God will extricate us.
19. Is Christian hope also consistent with fear?
Confidence in God does not exclude diffidence in ourselves 1; therefore, we should neither be excessively timid about our salvation, nor should we throw off all sense of fear and solicitude for it.2
1 'Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall' (1 Cor. x. 12). 'I am not conscious to myself of anything, yet I am not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord' (1 Cor. iv. 4). 'Justify not thyself before God, for He knoweth the heart' (Ecclus. vii. 5). 2 'With fear and trembling work out your salvation' (Phili. ii. 12). 'I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection; lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway' (1 Cor. ix. 27).
