"Christian hope must be active, avoiding presumption; and it must be firm and invincible, so as to reject discouragement."
Presumption exists when we trust more in our own strength than in God's help and forget the necessity of grace for every good work we do; or when we expect from divine mercy what God cannot give us because of our bad disposition, such as forgiveness without true repentance, or eternal life without making any effort to deserve it. It is not rare that from presumption one soon arrives at discouragement, when trials and difficulties appear, as if that difficult good, which is the object of hope, were impossible to attain. This discouragement leads first to pessimism, and later to lukewarmness, which considers the task of personal sanctification too difficult, turning away from any effort.
The cause of despair is not the difficulties, but the absence of a sincere desire for holiness and for heaven. Those who love God and want to love him even more, take advantage of the same difficulties to show him that they love him and to grow in virtue. A lack of hope comes when one falls into bourgeoisie, into attachment to the goods of the earth, which one considers to be the only true ones.
The lukewarm person becomes discouraged because he has lost, through many culpable negligences, the goal of his struggle for holiness, for knowing and loving God more. Material things then acquire for him the value of an absolute end in practice, although perhaps not in theory. And "if we transform temporal projects into absolute goals, canceling from the horizon the eternal dwelling and the end for which we have been created - to love and praise the Lord, and then to possess him in Heaven - the most brilliant attempts become betrayals, and even a vehicle for debasing creatures".
We must walk through life with our objectives well determined, with our gaze fixed on God, who is what leads us to carry out with illusion our temporal tasks, whether they are costly or not. Then we understand that all earthly goods (being goods) are relative and must always be subordinated to eternal life and to what refers to it. The goal of Christian hope transcends, in an absolute way, all earthly goods.
This attitude towards life, which sustains hope, supposes a daily joyful struggle, because the tendency of every man, of every woman, is to make of this life a permanent city, being in reality in transit. The well-defined inner struggle in spiritual direction, the daily general examination, the starting over and over again, with humility, without giving way to discouragement, is the best guarantee to keep us firm in hope. The Lord has promised us, as we read in the Gospel of the Mass, that whenever we turn to him for help, he will take care of us.
https://www.hablarcondios.org/meditaciondiaria.aspx