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| Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption, Marietta OH. This is one of the four pilgrimage sites for the Jubilee year in the Diocese of Steubenville. I was very blessed to serve the opening mass for this year in this basilica as a seminarian. Isn't it beautiful? Well, it's not nearly as beautiful as the face of Jesus! |
"So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old... Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, 'Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'" -Isaiah 20:4-6
Welcome to 2025!
Are you excited for this new year that has recently arrived? You should be! Even if you aren't particularly excited to get going on your New Year's resolutions or looking forward to more wrinkles and gray hairs, all of that should pale in comparison to the gift that Holy Mother Church has now bestowed upon us. This is the gift of a Jubilee year, a year of historically and Biblically grounded graces* of forgiveness and pilgrimage. This is a year of extra graces of indulgence from our infinitely indulgent God and father, if only we are humble enough to receive them.
Jubilee years have encouraged Christians to make pilgrimages to holy sites as a reminder of our spiritual journeys towards Christ. In conjunction with this practice, Pope Francis is asking for us to:
"...Encourage and sustain hope as the constant companion that guides our steps towards the goal of our encounter with the Lord Jesus." -Pope Francis, Spes Non Confundit, 5.
Let's return to the ominous Bible passage that has been placed at the beginning of this blog post. This is a prophecy that God gives to the prophet Isaiah about the nations of Egypt and Cush. Egypt and Cush were historical enemies of the people of Israel, but occasional sources of Earthly hope when the Israelites needed military help... that is, when they wanted military help that didn't require "being faithful to God" as a prerequisite. Here God foretells the total defeat of these nations, and the reaction of the people of the region who hoped that Egypt and Cush could provide them protection. The Earthly hope of the peoples has been destroyed... what hope is left?
This is similar to where our world finds itself today. As year after year rolls by, and we advance more and more in science and technology that should make our lives all the more comfortable and secure, we instead find ourselves in a world more dangerous than before. Periods of global, national, local, or even household peace are temporary and surface level; the thin blanket of peace covering many of our lives is only a illusion of distraction and blissful ignorance. A culture so focused on taking care of oneself and simply tolerating sin and pain by filling emptiness with the noise of the media only leads to despondency and desolation. Pope Francis reflects on this reality when he finishes naming some of the many places where he sees this loss of hope:
"All of us... need to recover the joy of living, since men and women, created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26), cannot rest content with getting along one day at a time, settling for the here and now and seeking fulfilment in material realities alone. This leads to a narrow individualism and the loss of hope; it gives rise to a sadness that lodges in the heart and brings forth fruits of discontent and intolerance." -Pope Francis, Spes Non Confundit, 9.
When souls lose the "fulfillment in material realities," what will they do? It is obvious what many have done when this fulfillment no longer fulfills, when the sadness of discontent is all that is left in the heart: the rates of suicide and depression tell us what many people have done and continue to do.
What then, must we do?
We must be Pilgrims of Hope!
We are pilgrims on a journey to heaven; to our perfect fulfillment; to God. Little by little, with the baby steps of little children, we can make it there, if only we humbly take hold of the hands of Christ who leads us. Christ is our hope, our source of salvation and comfort in every moment as we embark on the rough terrain of our pilgrimage home.
The Jubilee year is so full of indulgences because God gives us every opportunity possible to draw near to Him. Only God gives us more indulgence in graces with every sacrament, every prayer, and every situation; more grace than we can possibly even hope to receive. Why hope in anything else other than God?
As pilgrims, we must learn to hope as Our Lady hoped. When, after the Nativity, the Holy Family was forced into exile and was traveling harsh roads to seek refuge in the foreign lands of Egypt, Our Lady had only one hope: Her son, the child Jesus. She took comfort in carrying Him close to Her, in gazing at His features, and pondering the promises of God in Her heart; for indeed, Christ was the complete fulfillment of every single promise of God. On a forced and painful pilgrimage, Our Lady found all of Her hope in Jesus alone... and that was more than enough.
"So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that... we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us." -Hebrews 6:17-18
Jesus Christ is this oath, the complete fulfilment of the promises of God. He is our unfailing hope!
We do not have the strength to hope on our own! Beg God for great graces of hope, especially in this Jubilee year, for yourself and for many others, that we might all be led by His grace and mercy to the glory of Heaven. Beg especially through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the heart who's flame of love is kept powerfully alive only and completely through the grace of God, through Her complete acceptance of the will of the Holy Spirit working through Her.
*"Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life." -Catechism of the Catholic Church: 1996
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