We Need Hope Part I
In my homily this past Sunday, I used the word hope thirteen times. This was not an accident. Hope is essential to our faith. Whether we live in hope or despair has a profound impact on how we look at the world.
During this Advent season, the Bible readings proclaimed at Mass often look ahead to the Second Coming. Without our Christian hope founded in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we might look at the Second Coming with despair. With Christian hope, we look to eternal life with God.
In three weeks we will celebrate Christmas, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. We look at baby Jesus in the manger and see hope for our future. Jesus comes to save us. Christmas awakens the hope that the Lord has placed in every heart.
We need hope!
The news is often filled with bad news; wars, polarization and hatred, starvation, and sins against life. Is there any chance of things getting better? Nothing is impossible for God!
Advent is a time that awakens hope in our hearts as we prepare to celebrate the first coming of Jesus at Christmas and await the Second Coming at the end of the ages.
There is something in addition to the readings at Mass that lead me to reflect on hope. We are about to begin a Jubilee Year. The theme of this jubilee year is Pilgrims of Hope. As we await the beginning of this jubilee on December 24th, last week I read Pope Francis’ Bull of Indiction, “Spes Non Confundit” (Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025, May 9, 2024). The reading of this was very influential in my frequent use of the word hope in my homily this past Sunday.
It is fitting that the jubilee year of mercy begins just as we look to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25th. The jubilee year will continue until January 6, 2026. January 6th is when much of the world celebrates the Epiphany of the Lord when Jesus was visited by the wise men (in the United States we celebrate Epiphany on the closest Sunday). (You can find more on the important dates for this jubilee year in paragraph 6 of “Spes Non Confundit.”)
Jubilee years have not always been celebrated in the Catholic Church. The Catholic tradition of jubilees dates back to the thirteenth century. It’s foundation as a practice given by the Lord goes back much farther to the days when the Israelites were set free from slavery in Egypt (You can find a history and development of jubilee years in the Vatican Document, “What Is a Holy Year?,” written at the time of the last ordinary jubilee in 2000.) Our Jewish roots of jubilee years can be found beginning in Leviticus 25:8-22. The Lord presents the jubilee year as a time of restoration and a time to recenter our lives, with the indispensable help of God’s grace, on God and his will for us.
The central message of this jubilee year is hope (“Spes Non Confundit,” 1). The very first words of “Spes Non Confundit” come from Romans 5:5, “hope does not disappoint.” Pope Francis speaks of the many people who will make pilgrimages to Rome or other designated churches during this jubilee year as “pilgrims of hope.” Whether or not we make a pilgrimage to a designated church during this jubilee, we are all looking for hope, hope that is centered on an encounter with our Lord who is the gate (please note that the Vatican English translation of “Spes Non Confundit,” identifies Jesus as the “door.” In our American English, the reference is to Jesus as the gate, (see John 10:7-9).
Pope Francis describes hope as “the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring” (“Spes Non Confundit,” 1). He goes on to speak of how the “uncertainty about the future” may lead us to anxiety and doubt. This is when we need hope all the more.
Hope is not simply wishful thinking. Hope is based on the promises of the Lord that we find in the Bible. In Jesus, many prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled. This proves to us that we can count on the promises the Lord makes us. Thus, we have reason to hope in what Jesus promises us.
Pope Francis writes, “and we boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God…Hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (see Romans 5:1-2, 5)” (“Spes Non Confundit,” 2).
We can count on the hope that flows from God’s love. There is much that goes on in the world that could pull us from the love of Christ and drain our hope. Pope Francis points us to Romans 8:35-39 to remind us that nothing will be able to separate us from the hope that the Lord has given us (“Spes Non Confundit,” 3) if we remain firm in our faith.
I am going to conclude today’s article at this point. I will write at least one more article based on “Spes Non Confundit,” in the next couple of weeks. Be patient with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Peace,
Fr. Jeff