So, the 2025 Jubilee Year, was officially inaugurated on Christmas Eve by Pope Francis when he opened the holy door in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. He has given it the theme of “Pilgrims of Hope.” Bishop Frank Dougan gave the official start to the holy year in our Diocese this weekend at the 9.30am Mass in St. Margaret’s Cathedral in Ayr. As in bygone eras, so today we can easily see the reasons why the Holy Father wants to concentrate on hope. The world is plagued by all sorts of things which could destroy our hope. You don’t need me to list them for you.
With the word “pilgrims”, Pope Francis wants us to remember that we are actually going somewhere. There is a final goal for each and for all which is neither the grave nor annihilation. As the African-American spiritual puts it: “we’re on our way to heaven and we shall not be moved” – except in the sense that we move forward as pilgrims. We are pilgrims of heaven. Christ, our chief pilgrim has opened that way up for us. He has destroyed the grave. He has annihilated annihilation. The victory has already been won. It’s just being worked out in us as we pilgrim with Him, carrying our cross behind Him until we reach the heavenly Jerusalem.
You may know of the book of John Bunyan, “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Well, Pope Francis calls on the whole Church and on all people of goodwill to recapture and strengthen our hope in that progress, the progress of the Kingdom. We are not destined only for this life, this earth. Pilgrims of hope do not go round in circles but in a straight line towards God, our Alpha and our Omega. A synodal Church is just another way of speaking of a pilgrim Church, a pilgrimage which the whole human race is on, too, whether it sees it or not. Being pilgrims means to be stuck neither in the past nor in the present, but to bring with us into the future all that is truly valuable of both past and present. If we limit our horizon only to what is immediate and born of this world, then we will stagnate in despair instead of reaching our full potential in the Kingdom of God.
It is hope which makes us pilgrims, because hope draws us onwards and upwards to the future, to the glorious prize for which Christ died and rose that we might attain to it. The hope of which the Pope speaks is not a vague optimism or mere wishful thinking. It is the sure end to which we can confidently look forward because it is rooted in Christ’s victory over death. You could say that our hope is rooted in the past event of the Lord’s death and resurrection and grows stronger in every present here and now filled with the power of the Lord until it is fulfilled in our own future victory over death when He will give the word.
We all experience in life things which militate against our hopes and dreams. We can feel overwhelmed and overcome by failure in any of its forms. But in those moments or periods of life, we need only remember that Christ Himself was crucified in weakness. His Cross appeared to be a monumental failure. However low we may feel, it is never lower than how he felt. Someone even said that Jesus descended into hell so as to be able to catch us if we fall there! Whatever about that, the reality is that, if we want it, our experience of weakness and failure associates us more closely with the crucified – and therefore with the Risen one. The despair into which we fall can be transformed into hope if we reach out to Christ, with sincerity and trust and surrender.
Being pilgrims and being people of hope does require effort and work, though. Much of that work involves refusing to let our minds and hearts be programmed by the mindset and attitudes which are so prevalent today. Attitudes such as “anything goes, it’s all the same, do your own thing, milk the system, gimme what I want now, me first” etc., are sweet poison which paralyze us to stand still or to go round in circles focused on our ego. You don’t need to pilgrim towards your ego: you’re already there, and what a disappointment that will be if it is your endgame! Equally serious are mindsets which exclude God from having any real relevance in the way I live, except when it feels nice or good. An approach to science which gives it the last and exclusive word on the truth closes us into this world of senses and blocks out the light of the Truth of Christ. The list could go on and on.
Being a pilgrim with the deep hope in your heart of eternal life will mean detachment from so much of what the world dangles before our appetites to distract us and stop us from making progress. The true pilgrim will renounce what weighs him or her down and will discern the right path ahead. Fired by a deep sense of purpose and direction, the pilgrim’s heart will be joyful with the even deeper joy of God.
In his document “Hope does not disappoint”, Pope Francis identifies ten things which he asks us to consider as being either signs of hope or matters into which we should seek to bring hope. I’ve detailed them in this week’s bulletin and have thought it good for us throughout 2025 to assign one each of these ten to a given month of the year. I ask you to consult the bulletin for more details.
But, parallel to these, I invite you to consider for yourself during these last days of 2024: where do I need hope in Christ in my life? What is dragging me down or back or paralyzing me now in some greater or lesser degree of despair? What is tripping me up on my pilgrim way and needs to be discarded? What is weighing me down and slowing me down as I follow Christ, and what can I do about it? Is there any sense that I am walking in circles spiritually, morally, in prayer or in my life of faith, rather than walking forward? Does fear of moving forward play a significant part in my life? How can I surrender that fear to Christ so that He can replace it with His love? Am I blinded on my path by any attitude, habit or way of thinking which doesn’t fit with a true pilgrim of hope?
The Holy Family made a pilgrimage as refugees to Egypt and the pilgrimage of hope to Jerusalem for the Passover. Pope Francis calls the family the most beautiful work of Creation and the “factory of hope.” With the Holy Family and with all who have made their pilgrim way to God before us, and who will come after us, let’s then step forward confidently into 2025 with hope in our hearts knowing, to quote another well-known song, that “we will never walk alone!”