For a Christian hope is "like the air that he breathes", Pope Francis said at a Mass in the Vatican on Tuesday.
"Hope is this living in tension, always," Francis said in the Vatican guesthouse he lives in, St Martha's House.
"If a Christian loses this perspective, his life becomes static and things that don't move are corrupted.
"Let us think of water: if water is still, does not run, does not move, it is corrupted.
"For a Christian who is not able to reach out, to be in tension towards the other bank of the river, something is missing: he will end up corrupted.
"For him, Christian life will be a philosophical doctrine, he will live it like that, he will say that it is faith but without hope it is not so.
"We are poor and must reach out to the other bank".
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