Celebrating Jubilee 2025
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January 3, 2025
Celebrated every 25 years, a Jubilee is a special moment of grace, forgiveness of debts, and reconciliation. We are encouraged to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation and to examine our relationships with God, with one another, and with God’s creation. It is a time to “bring good news to the captives” to dispel whatever it might be that is holding us prisoners, be it physical or spiritual.
The theme chosen by Pope Francis for the Jubilee 2025 is Pilgrims of Hope. “Hope does not disappoint,” with these words, taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans (Rom 5:5), the Holy Father opens his official proclamation (Bull of Indiction) of the jubilee year. The theme is an invitation to Christians to rediscover the hope that is born from knowing God’s love for the individual. To persevere in such hope and spread it to others. It is an invitation to take courage in the pilgrimage of life, knowing that the love of Christ impels us and that we are not alone in the journey. We have certainty in the reward that awaits those who persevere in faith, hope, and love. It also is an invitation to reflect on the reasons for such hope (1 Pet 3:15).
The Apostle Paul, Pope Francis reminded us, encouraged us to “rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, and persevere in prayer” (Rom 12:12). “Surely,” he continues, “we need to ‘abound in hope’ (cf. Rom 15:13), so that we may bear credible and attractive witness to the faith and love that dwell in our hearts; that our faith may be joyful and our charity enthusiastic; and that each of us may be able to offer a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed, in the knowledge that, in the Spirit of Jesus, these can become, for those who receive them, rich seeds of hope.” (Spes not confundit, 18)
The Pope challenges us to not only be “pilgrims of hope” but also “tireless missionaries of joy” (Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the XXXIX World Youth Day, November 24, 2024), because “Those who hope in the Lord will run and not be weary.” (cf. Is 40:31)
As we go about rediscovering and replenishing our hearts with true hope, may the pilgrimages, prayers, penance, abundant works of mercy and good deeds, and any other initiatives we may take part in during the Jubilee 2025, be external signs of an internal pilgrimage to conform ourselves ever more to Jesus Christ, the “door” (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as “our hope” (1 Tim 1:1). (SNC, 1)May Christians be a sign of hope for the world amid so much suffering and destruction, indifference, acrimony, division, and general disregard for human life and for God’s creation.
Let us firmly remain anchored in hope!
The Jubilee Prayer
Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your Son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the powers of evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven. May that same grace spread with joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth. To you our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise forever. Amen.
