Human life is necessarily marked by time. We are rivers that flow into the sea, which is death, as Jorge Manrique said. Faced with the passing of time, we can adopt very different vital postures, which mark our way of behaving and our temperament. There are those who cling to the past, thinking that "any time in the past was better". They live on memories and nostalgia. They are afraid of novelty and change. They cling to "things have always been done this way here", without realizing that perhaps that is why they should be done differently. They sink their sense of commitment in an unquestionable historical imperative.

Others prefer to live in the present, a point to make the most of before it dissolves. It makes them active, impatient; wanting to enjoy everything and everyone. In the present there is only room for a "rental" commitment, short term, the "here I catch you, here I kill you". For this reason, in those who live in the present there is always a touch of melancholy and disappointment: they would like the clock to stop the time in their hands and make the night perpetual, because time passes faster than they are able to enjoy it.

Man's own time is the future: rivers are always heading towards the sea. Our capacity to think, to imagine, to want, always goes beyond what we can really achieve. We need to have new projects, new desires, new aspirations, even if this creates tensions when we realize the difficulties in making them a reality. That is why human beings need hope, that virtue that leads us to face with confidence the difficulties and the prolongation of the time that separates us from that which is presented to us as good.

Hope is tremendously realistic. It is about placing one's hope in something that can be achieved, even if it is going to cost. When the goal is fixed on something unrealistic, hope becomes utopia. How many utopian ideologies have led humanity to the abyss and despair!

Hope must be placed in things that are worthwhile. When Francis Borgia saw the decaying face of Empress Isabella, he exclaimed: "Never again will I serve a Lord who might die! How many lords we serve who die! How easily the idols we create for ourselves fall!

Hope leads to action. To hope for a better future implies getting down to work. The hope of the providentialist who abandons himself to the idea of a future that has already been written is as false as that of the one who blindly trusts in technical progress that achieves everything. We write the future with our actions, but not everything we do is right, and sometimes we cause more harm than good.

In these times we live in, it does not hurt to encourage us not to lose hope. And that this hopeful attitude should lead us to courageously analyze reality (avoiding utopian chants), to set worthwhile goals (it is time for magnanimity and solidarity), and to work for them.