Pope Francis invites all believers to participate in the celebration of the 2025 Jubilee Year with a Bull of Indiction, or Letter of convocation (May 9, 2024) entitled “Spes non confundit” - Hope does not disappoint (Rom 5:5). The Ordinary Jubilee Year is celebrated every 25 years. It was instituted by Pope Boniface VIII in the year 1300.
The Holy Year of the Jubilee is a unique opportunity to be deeply converted and be renewed: a time to change, “to rediscover the value of silence, of effort, of the essential, simplicity of life” (Bull, no. 5). It is a unique occasion to pray, receive God’s mercy, and become more prayerful and truly merciful.
The 2025 Holy Year is the Jubilee of Hope, “an opportunity to be renewed in hope.” Pope Francis hopes that through 2025 our hearts be filled with hope. Grounded on Sacred Scriptures, the Church - the People of God - proclaims a message of hope centered on Christ, our hope. Our Pope “invites everyone to an intense experience of the love of God that awakens in hearts the sure hope of salvation in Christ.” Hopefully, the Jubilee Year will be a hopeful invitation to become “firm in faith, active in charity and steadfast in hope”: a lively experience of grace and hope.
- REASON FOR OUR HOPE
We are pilgrims on the journey of life, pilgrims of hope. Hope is the virtue of the pilgrim, who wishes, longs for a better tomorrow, in spite of the uncertainties of the night. St. Peter petitions believers: Be able to give a reason for your hope (1 Pet 3:15). What is hope and what is the reason for our hope.
HOPE is one of the three theological virtues. These “express the heart of Christian life.” Christian hope is grounded on faith and nurtured by charity. Hope is “the theological virtue that sustains our lives and shields them from groundless fears”. It gives “inward directions and purpose to the life of the believers.” With hope, we may make “credible and attractive” our witnessing of the faith and love dwelling in our hearts (cf. nos. 1, 22, 18).
The Holy Spirit illumines all believers with the light of hope. Christian hope “does not deceit or disappoint because it is rooted in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love” (3). Hope is born of love and based on the love, springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross.
Hope is not naïve optimism but a gift amid the realities of life. Living hope is patient and persevering. Patience makes our sufferings bearable, and even joyful (cf. Rom 5:3-5). Pope Francis invites us to pray “for the grace of patience” (4).
Hope is usually represented by an anchor. Our hope is “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Heb 6:18-19). “We are firmly anchored in the hope born of grace, which enables us to live in Christ and to overcome sin, fear and death” (15).
MAIN REASON FOR OUR HOPE. The heart of our faith and the basis of our hope is “the death and resurrection of Christ.” In our Baptism, we received God’s gift of a new life, a life “capable of transfiguring death’s drama” (20). Our life is “directed to the encounter with the Lord of glory” (1). The goal of our hope is eternal life. Truly, the object and end of hope is “Eternal life, or full communion with God, eternal happiness or the end of our hopeful journey of life (21). Death is followed by God’s Judgment: at the end of individual lives and at the end of history” (cf. 20, 1, 21-22).
The best witness of hope is the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who “never abandoned her hope and truth in God.” She is our Mother of Hope, Stella Maris in the turbulent sea of our life. A continuing shining example today: the martyrs. “We need the treasure of their testimony in order to confirm our hope, and allow it to bear goof fruit” (24, 3).
- SIGNS OF HOPE TODAY
Pope Francis is engagingly hopeful, positive and realistic. He speaks of the immense goodness present in our world. Observing our secularized and often violent world, Pope Francis sees many signs of hope: “There is hope in God’s grace and in the signs of the times…” (Bull, nos. 7-15; cf. GS 4). The signs of hope are signs of the times.
FIRST SIGN OF THE HOPE is the desire for peace in our world in the midst of terrible regional and civil wars. “May the Jubilee remind us that those who are peacemakers will be called ‘children of God’ (8; cf. Mt 5:9).
Second sign of the times - of hope: having enthusiasm for life and a readiness to share it. Pope Francis decries the decline in birth rates and criticizes the tendency of some leaders to recommend it by a wrong reason: over-population. Indeed, WE NEED TO RECOVER THE JOY OF LIVING.
Sign of hope are the young, hopeful by nature: They are the joy and hope of the Church and of the world. We must not disappoint them: the future depends of their enthusiasm. The Christian community and civil society are called to cooperate in strengthening the covenant between generations.
Sign of hope ought to be shown to the sick at home or in hospitals. The Pope reminds us that Works of mercy are also works of hope. Signs of hope should also be present for migrants, displaced persons, refugees, the elderly - and grandparents (11).
Sign of hope are the believers serving those who experience hardships of any kind, including in particular prisoners. All believers should be one in demanding dignified conditions to those in prison, respect for their human rights, and above all the abolition of the death penalty, which eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation (10).
Finally, may a sign of hope be shown to the many poor. This is “a great scandal” in a world of plenty, with “immense resources used to produce weapons” - and more weapons! Let us not forget that the poor are almost always the victims, not the ones to blame (15).
WORDS AND EXAMPLE TO PONDER: “The judgment of God, who is love, will surely be based on love, and in particular on all we have done or failed to do with regard to those in need, in whose midst Christ the Judge himself is present” (22; cf. Mt 25:31-46). In this context, the Pope asserts justly and compassionately that the rich nations are obliged to forgive the debts of the countries that cannot pay. Without justice and compassion, peace is not possible (cf. 10). Marvelous example: Pope Francis announced that the young man Pier Giorgio Frassati (April 6, 1901 - July 4, 1925) will be canonized - with another marvelous young man, Carlo Acutis - during the Jubilee of Youth, taking place from July 28 to August 3, 2025. When the young lay Dominican was asked how could he visit the filthy and smelly houses of the poor that he visited every day, Pier Giorgio answered: “Jesus comes to me every morning in Communion, and I return the visit by going to serve the poor.”
- JOURNEY THROUGH THE JUBILEE YEAR
Christians are asked by their faith to be involved, to be authentic pilgrims of hope. “All the baptized, with their respective charisms and ministries, are co-responsible for ensuring that the manyfold signs of hope bear witness to God’s presence in the world” (17). United in the proclamation of the Gospel, we manifest true synodality (walking, working, sharing together together).
THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE “is not only a magnificent spiritual gift, but also a decisive, essential and fundamental step on our journey of faith.” The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a wellspring of hope that, through the Jubilee Year, will be made available to all (5). The Sacrament of Confession should be “available in its individual form.” Confessors, missionaries of mercy will revive hope and offer forgiveness to all. They shall be available, in particular, in “hospitals, and places where human dignity is violated, poverty abound and social decay is prevalent” (23, 5). Let us not neglect confession but rediscover the beauty of this Sacrament of healing and joy, the beauty of God’s forgiveness of our sins” (23). Being forgiven opens our hearts to the need of forgiving others. Forgiveness cannot change the past, but look at it with different eyes. Moreover, it may allow us to change the future and to live different lives “without anger, animosity, and vindictiveness” (23).
In this context, the Pope speaks of the relevance of the Jubilee Indulgence, which allows us to discover the boundless mercy of God. The Jubilee Indulgence, thanks to the power of prayer, is intended in a particular way for those who have gone before us, so that they may obtain full mercy” (22; cf. CCC 1472).
The Jubilee Year of Hope opens in the evening of December 24, 2024, with the solemn opening of the Holy Door of the Basilica of St. Peter and the other three Papal Basilicas, namely St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls. Pope Francis has added another door: the Holy Door of a prison in Rome that he will open personally: “to offer prisoners a concrete sign of closeness." The Ordinary Jubilee will close on January 6, 2026, on the Feast of the Epiphany.
The Psalmist advises us: “Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act” (Ps 37:7). And St. Paul: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering and persevere in prayer” ((Rom 12:12). We remember: HOPE DOES NOT DISAPPOINT US!
Dear readers, we have tried to offer an appetizer. For the main course, kindly read Pope Francis’ Bull of convocation. You will not regret it. Hopeful reading!
And we close with some vital words for the journey. The goal of our hope is heaven - eternal life. “Eye has not seen; ear has not heard nor has it so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). “The Spirit and the Bride say: Come…Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:17, 20).
Consoling words: If the last day finds us not victorious, may at least find us fighting” (St. Augustine). (FGB)
