By Stephen P. White.

But first a note: Be sure to tune in tonight - Thursday, January 9th at 8 PM Eastern - to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse on 'The World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Fr. Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the appointment of Cardinal Robert McElroy to head the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., the appointment of the first woman to head a Vatican dicastery, and other issues in the global Church. Check your local listings for the channel in your area. Shows are usually available shortly after first airing on the EWTN YouTube channel.

Now for today's column...

A new year is a time of optimism and hope, a time for a fresh start. For many people, the beginning of a new year is a time for making resolutions. Usually, these are resolutions of self-improvement, even self-denial. We resolve to eat better, exercise more, shed a few pounds, spend more time with family, finally clear out the inbox, travel more, and the like.

These resolutions, of course, invariably stem from an awareness that something about how we have been living is not quite right. The hope in making New Year's resolutions is that something in one's life - something lacking or in excess, something out of place or out of order - might be corrected or at least improved.

No one makes a New Year's resolution to change nothing in the hope that things will thereby improve. Everyone who hopes to improve himself in some way knows that hope and complacency, if not exactly opposites, are incompatible.

If our goal, the object of our hope, is unrealistic, we are setting ourselves up for failure and disappointment. Our hope, if it is to remain true hope, needs to be well founded. If I, a 40-something Dad, want to establish a regular exercise routine and lose a few pounds and get in shape, that's reasonable. If I go to the gym with the hope of winning a starting job as power forward for the Chicago Bulls, that's nutty. Sound judgment often delineates the difference between genuine hope and foolish optimism.

At the same time, if I, a 40-something Dad, hope to establish a regular exercise routine, lose a few pounds, and get in shape but never do more than write about it, it is unreasonable for me to think that the goal will be accomplished. And here is the second point: In addition to sound judgment about the object of my hope for self-improvement, the attainment of the thing hoped for requires some action on my part.

There is an obvious parallel to the spiritual and moral life.

Faith is the virtue by which we believe in God and in all he has revealed to us through His Church. Christian hope arises from this knowledge that Christ has redeemed us by His death and resurrection. "Hope," as the Catechism tells us, "is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness." The attainment of this object by our own means, however, is not a reasonable thing for which to hope. It is only by the help of grace and the Holy Spirit that the promises of Christ are attainable.

Happily for us, God does not wait until we are worthy to offer us the surety of hope. "God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us," writes St. Paul. God acts first; we respond.

"We love God because he first loved us," as we read in the first epistle of John. The knowledge of God's unmerited love for us and the limitless bounty of His mercy opens for us the possibility of returning that love.

Unless we know we are sinners, we cannot grasp what God has done for us. It is by faith that we know God's offer of mercy which is our hope. And it is God's victory over sin and death that makes that hope reasonable.

As with our New Year's resolutions, it is necessary but not sufficient to know that I need to change something in my life. If I know that I must change, it is necessary but not sufficient that I have a reasonable hope for what I desire to attain. And if I have know...