Yesterday, on December 24, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, marking the official start of the Jubilee 2025. The Year of Jubilee 2025, also known as the Jubilee of Hope, is a significant event in the Catholic Church, occurring every 25 years as an ordinary jubilee. The theme for this jubilee is “Pilgrims of Hope,” focusing on the renewal of hope through faith in Jesus Christ. It starts with the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica, which symbolizes the passage from sin to grace and will end on January 6, 2026. Catholics are encouraged to participate in pilgrimages, attend special masses, and engage in acts of charity to gain indulgences, which are thought to remit the temporal punishment of sins already forgiven.
Pope Francis said that with the opening of the Holy Door we have inaugurated a new Jubilee and that each of us can enter into the mystery of this extraordinary event. He also said that the door of hope has opened wide to the world and that God is calling us all to Hope:
“Tonight, God speaks to each of us and says: there is hope also for you! There is hope for each of us. And do not forget, sisters and brothers, that God forgives everything, God always forgives. Do not forget this, which is a way of understanding hope in the Lord.”
He said that to receive this gift, we are called to set out with the marvel of the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem. who “went with haste” (Lk 2:16). In this same way, “with haste”, we too are called to recover lost hope, to renew that hope in our hearts, and to sow seeds of hope amid the bleakness of our time and our world.
Pope said that this Jubilee is hope for us but also a task to share that hope with others:
“And this is our task: to bring hope into the different situations of life. For Christian hope is not a cinematic “happy ending” which we passively await, but rather, a promise, the Lord’s promise, to be welcomed here and now in our world of suffering and sighs. It is a summons not to tarry, to be kept back by our old habits, or to wallow in mediocrity or laziness. Hope calls us – as Saint Augustine would say – to be upset with things that are wrong and to find the courage to change them. Hope calls us to become pilgrims in search of truth, dreamers who never tire, women and men open to being challenged by God’s dream, which is of a new world where peace and justice reign.”
Pope Francis said that hope does not tolerate the indifference of the complacent or the lethargy of those content with their own comforts – and so many of us are in danger of becoming too comfortable; hope does not accept the faux prudence of those who refuse to get involved for fear of making mistakes, or of those who think only of themselves. Hope is incompatible with the detachment of those who refuse to speak out against evil and the injustices perpetrated at the expense of the poor. Christian hope, on the other hand, while inviting us to wait patiently for the Kingdom to grow and spread, also requires of us, even now, to be bold, responsible, and not only that but also compassionate, in our anticipation of the fulfilment of the Lord’s promise. He also suggested that we should ask ourselves about compassion: do I have compassion?
“Am I able to suffer-with? Let us reflect on this.”
Pope Francis further stated that as disciples of the Lord, we are called to find our greater hope in him, and then, without delay, carry that hope with us, as pilgrims of light amid the darkness of this world.
“All of us have received the gift and task of bringing hope wherever hope has been lost, lives broken, promises unkept, dreams shattered and hearts overwhelmed by adversity. We are called to bring hope to the weary who have no strength to carry on, the lonely oppressed by the bitterness of failure, and all those who are broken-hearted. To bring hope to the interminable, dreary days of prisoners, to the cold and dismal lodgings of the poor, and to all those places desecrated by war and violence. To bring hope there, to sow hope there.”
He also said that the Jubilee has now opened so that all people may receive hope, the hope of the Gospel, the hope of love and hope of forgiveness. He also said that we should ask ourselves:
“Are our hearts full of expectation? Does this hope find a place there? … As we contemplate the loving kindness of God who overcomes our doubts and fears, let us also contemplate the grandeur of the hope that awaits us. … May this vision of hope illumine our path each day.”
In essence, the Jubilee of 2025 is not just a celebration but a call to action for every Catholic to embody and spread this divine hope, transforming both personal lives and the broader world with the light of faith, love, and forgiveness.
