Diocesan Launch of the Jubilee Year of Hope – Year C: 29.12.24
Mass @ 7.00pm – Cathedral of the Assumption, Carlow
Introduction:
This evening I officially open the Jubilee Year in our diocese during this Evening Mass, on the Feast of the Holy Family here in the Cathedral. A jubilee is a year of grace, held every 25 years, in the Catholic Church.
In this particular Jubilee Year, Pope Francis is inviting each of us, as followers of Christ, to be pilgrims of hope in the world. A world that is severely challenged by war, climate change, food poverty and migration on so many fronts.
Our pilgrim journey as Christians is nurtured and begins in the home. Christmas for many is spent in the context of family. Jesus is born into a family. Pope Francis in his exhortation Amoris Laetitia reminds us “no family drops down from heaven perfectly formed”[1].
So as we begin to celebrate these sacred mysteries, on this the fifth day of the Christmas Octave, let us together acknowledge our past, recognise our present and anticipate our future as we begin this Jubilee Year with the Sprinkling Rite …
Homily:
The notion of a Holy Year or a Jubilee Year has its roots in the Old Testament. It happens every twenty-five years. Pope Francis, who twelve days ago celebrated his 88th birthday, doesn’t hold back on initiatives or programmes. There is no slackening off for this Pope as he enters into what might be understandably termed ‘the home stretch’.
In his exhortation announcing this Jubilee Year on Ascension Thursday last (May 9th), he titled it ‘Spes non confundit’ (Hope that does not disappoint). In a world where uncertainty and fear often pervail, where anxiety and despair can be the dominant mood; Pope Francis invites us to remain anchored, to remain rooted, in the hope given to us by Christ.
In an often-troubled world, bruite agus briste, where we see the tragedy of war unfold in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanamar to mention but a few, hope will always pervail. Hope in the promise and knowledge that we are not alone, that our God is very close to us, so often He is carrying us as the reflection Footprints infers.
Hope that as the days stretch, winter will be but a memory. Tempus fugit. Hope because of our experience of being valued and gifted in recent days. The gifts we got that we didn’t expect. Hope is so important, not just optimism with a fairytale ‘happy ever after’ finale but a deep trust in a God who walks with us, especially in our most difficult moments.
In that Bull of Indiction announcing this Jubilee Year, Pope Francis makes particular reference to Confession and the Sacrament of God’s Mercy. Hope has to be something personal, something we make our own, nowhere better than in the context of mercy, owning our story as its enveloped in His mercy.
I often think that the context of family can, for some, be the most challenging of all. It’s here we need to practice mercy, not just biting our lips and saying nothing, but reaching out in love to the one who is hurting. It’s in the family we need to be that person of hope; from the family we carry that light of hope into our parish communities and into our diocese.
The Christmas story is all about us being welcomed into the family of God – and there are no exceptions. Every family has a squeaky door or a dripping tap; there is never full perfection. Our hope has to be found in the realisation that Jesus came, loved and died that we might find a way out of the cycle of destruction and death that so weighs heavy on our world. This offers us an unquenchable hope.
The hope we have is one our pagan ancestors didn’t enjoy and our secular contemporaries don’t really grasp. A hope that is born in the fact that Christ was not afraid to tell us He loved us. We should begin by telling our family we love them, no matter who they are or what they’ve done that we love them. Sometimes ‘love hurts’ as the film of the same name reminds us; always love makes demands. And from our families, let us bring that love, that acceptance, that hope to others.
We are invited to become ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ this Jubilee Year with our gaze fixed on Christ. Local places of designated pilgrimage will be determined and announced soon, some associated with a holy well or some connected with a sacred history.
But tonight the first place of pilgrimage for us all is our own home, our own family. Let’s begin this Jubilee of Hope Year in the family, let’s begin it in our own family. Our faith calls us to look to God with hope. May this Jubilee Year be a blessed and enriched time for one and all, as we grow to realise “hope does not dissappoint”[2]. Amen.
[1] Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, §325
[2] Rm.5:5
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