The fruit of conversion: joy and hope

Abstract

Because ofour fragility and weaknesses, we are threatened with the loss of joy and hope. The greatest threat to joy and hope is not poverty or disease, but toxic relations, i.e. relations based on something other than love. A serious threat tojoy and hope is when someone is looking for them where they cannot be found. Joy is not the same as pleasure, and hope isnot the same as “positive”thinking and optimistic attitude to life. The truejoy and hope arethe fruit of mature relations protected by mature values, in other words, they are the fruit of conversion and persistencein the love of Jesus. Joy and hope are not available for people who harm themselves or others. The loss of joy and hope is not the essence of the problem, but a signal that our life is running low on love. That's why the path to joy and hope begins with a sincere conversion. The first condition for the recovery of joy and hope is to free ourselves from a situation that deprives us from joy and hope