January 10, 2025

Editorial

We are invited to celebrate 2025 as a Jubilee Year of Hope

Ten days into this new year, most of us are probably struggling to remain faithful to the resolutions that we made before the year began. Usually this is because our resolutions, while sincere, are not realistic. We tend to overreach in our desire to change the way we think, act or behave. Better to begin with something we know we can accomplish, then move gradually to more challenging resolutions.

One New Year’s resolution that we have been invited to make—and keep—this year is to be “pilgrims of hope.” This is the theme of the 2025 Jubilee Year proclaimed by Pope Francis, and it addresses the growing problems of disillusionment and despair faced by people throughout the globe.

“Spes non confundit” (“Hope does not disappoint,” Rom 5:5) is the message that Pope Francis offers us, using the words of St. Paul to the Romans and applying them to all nations and peoples everywhere. “For everyone,” the Holy Father says in his papal bull announcing this special year, “may the jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ [Jn 10:7-9] of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as our hope” (1 Tm 1:1).

Hope does not come easily to people who have experienced the devastating effects of war, poverty, economic and social unrest, or the uncertainty caused by moral decay and political turmoil.

Hope is urgently needed in every age and circumstance, but it is especially important in times of crisis. We who believe that Jesus Christ is Lord of heaven and Earth are compelled to share this good news with others. We dare not trust in political figures, ideologies or secular movements. Christ alone is our hope.

By inviting us to see ourselves as pilgrims of hope, the Church reminds us that none of us is alone in facing the challenges of daily living. We are members of God’s family who travel together on a hope-filled journey. If we forget our final destination, or the mission we have been given by the risen Christ to be Spirit-filled evangelizers who proclaim his good news to all, we are easily bogged down by despair. The world is a confusing, gloomy place. Only the light of Christ can make it clear and bright.

The jubilee prayer for 2025 provides us with the right way to approach our pilgrimage of hope:

Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ, 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 the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the Earth. To you our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise for ever. Amen.

The “blessed hope,” for which we pray will be reawakened in us by the Holy Spirit, is Christ himself. The seeds for which we pray will transform us into tireless missionary disciples. They are the life-giving instruments of God’s grace that have been planted in our hearts by word and sacrament. These compel us to abandon the safety and security of our comfortable lives in order to go forth and proclaim the resurrection of Jesus, whose victory over sin and death gives us the hope of eternal life with him.

Christ alone is our hope. He is the only source of joy and peace that we can rely on in this new year and beyond.

As Pope Francis wrote in his letter introducing the “Jubilee of Hope”:

“We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us, and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision. The forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire.”

Let’s make this jubilee year a time for making and keeping hope-filled New Year’s resolutions. Let’s make 2025 a year of hope for all.

—Daniel Conway

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