I think that's pretty much the bottom line here isn't it? When an attempt is made to demonstrate what is meant by the word "hope" from a Catholic theological perspective it's dismissed as a "shopping list".
A moment when a priest could explain that our "hope" is in Jesus Christ who never fails "placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit" is just ignored for a platitude as if our HOPE in Christ is a pedestrian, pious facade. The theological virtue of Hope isn't "I hope we have chicken for dinner".
And speaking of hoping we have chicken for dinner, we’re NOT going to have chicken for dinner. We’re having cheese pizza because my wife is going with her mother to see Glenn Beck tonight. I get to stay home with the kids, and this is the day after my birthday.
Now I ask you: WHAT KIND OF BIRTHDAY PRESENT IS THAT?!
Then again, my wife gave me a king sized micro-fiber blanket for my birthday. WOW! I never thought I could be so excited about a blanket. It’s like being wrapped in angel wings... or possibly bunnies. Very, very soft bunnies.
It almost makes up for being left alone with the screaming loons this evening. BUT IT DOESN’T MAKE UP FOR THE CHEESE PIZZA! Plastic on cardboard?! Oh that sounds just lovely... maybe we could follow it up with some mud pies or road apple fritters...
Ahhhh... apple fritters. When I was a kid I had a paper route and on fridays I’d stop at a little bakery after I delivered all the papers and buy a carton of chocolate milk and an apple fritter.
There... that’s what hysterical looks like.