When I first heard that 2025 would be a Jubilee Year of Hope, I was not filled with much enthusiasm. In the Church we have had a “Year of Faith”, a “Year of Mercy”, a “Year for Vocations” and now a “Year of Hope”. However, as the weeks have progressed, I have come to realise that Pope Francis is on to something important here. Let us explore it a little further.
Those that know me well, will know that I have a fascination with the passing of time. Many see time as that gradual evolving of things from the past to the present to the future.
However, I prefer to side with a different school of thought that is more future focused. It sees time as the measurement of reality gradually being pulled forward from the future out of the past and into the present. I see God as the one who stands ahead of us, like the eternal fisherman, reeling in all of reality towards himself.
Christians have always been future focused. In his first century letter to the People of Thessalonica, Paul is adamant that Christians should not grieve for their dead loved ones like other people who have no hope. (Thes 4) He goes on to explain how the death and resurrection of Jesus is the sure rock on which Christian hope is founded.
Christians believe that God not only created the world but that he is also always drawing the world and each and every human being, through life and through death, to an everlasting state of fulfilment with God himself.
While the Christian has hope of an ever better future, such hope does not spare us from trials and suffering. In life, trials and suffering come our way but the Christian approaches them differently.
The Austrian Psychologist Victor Frankl tells the story of a young woman whose death he witnessed while a prisoner at Dachau Concentration Camp not far from Munich. The woman knew that she was soon to die.
However, she remained cheerful. She told Frankl how through an opening near her prison bunk she could partly see the blossomed branch of a chestnut tree. It had become her only friend. She told him how she talked to it. He asked if it replied. She said yes. He asked what did it say? She answered: “It said to me, “I am here-I am here-I am life, eternal life.”
Despite, her unimaginable hardships and her imminent death, this woman continued to hope. She hoped with a hope that stretched beyond her suffering and death into eternal life itself. Reflecting on this and on his own experiences of suffering, Frankl notes how those who had lost hope developed a certain look in their eye – a look of despair that always ended in death.
Those who chose to hope in the expectation of a better future in this life or the next were different.
Despite the suffering, despite the pain they acted differently. They held on longer. Quoting the great German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, Frankl notes that he who has a “why” to live can bear almost any “how”.
As Christians we have a “why” to live? Every fibre of our being is tending towards our ultimate fulfilment in the mystery of God himself. This is the foundation of Christian hope, and it is this that makes the difference to every aspect of our living.
At times we might despair at the world in which we live in. All we have to do is think of the martyred people of Gaza, the destruction in Ukraine, war-torn South Sudan. We might worry about the Church or the future of the faith or our parishes falling down. No matter what we can still be confident.
As believers we have a hope that does not disappoint. God is there out in front – lifting up, recreating, resurrecting and drawing all things into his infinite love. Yes, we are called to do our bit -to live well, to work for justice, to strive for peace, to build on earth as it is in heaven. Through and in it all God’s steady guiding hand is at work. Even the greatest of darknesses cannot overpower such divine light.
In a few moments, we will bless the oils that will be used in the Sacraments during the year. In a sense we will light a cauldron of hope. Over the next days and weeks and months through the hands of our priests these oils will make their annual pilgrimage of grace throughout out Dioceses to touch the lives of so many.
The Oil of Catechumens will bring the sure hope of Christian faith to those preparing for Baptism.
The Oil of Chrism will bring to many young lives in Baptism and Confirmation the message that you are not alone in life – God walks with you. It will be used to anoint the hands of priests, the heads of bishops for their mission as ministers of hope itself. Its touch will set apart our altars and our church buildings as sacred spaces of encounter with the God of hope.
The Oil of the Sick will come as a light to those whose lives have been darkened by illness. Into suffering and distress, it will bring God’s solace and hope. To those that approach death – it will come as a beacon of hope for the journey beyond this life and into the eternity of God who draws all things to himself.
To the priests gathered here today and to all the priests of our Dioceses, I ask that in this Jubilee Year you embark on a journey to reawaken in your heart that sense of Christian Hope that only faith in God can bring. Conscious of a new awaking to the reality of a common responsibility for the mission of the Church, I ask each and every member of the laity here present to do the same.
Together, let us embark on a sacred pilgrimage towards a new sense of Christian hope amid the doubts and challenges of life. Let us recommit ourselves to affirming as Julian of Norwich so beautifully put it that no matter what trials and suffering come our way in life: “all shall be well; all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well … for there is a force of Love moving through the universe that holds us fast and will never let go.” (Revelations of Divine Love)
In this Jubilee Year of Hope, let us also make an intentional effort to spread the message of Christian hope. Let us be Ambassadors of Christian Hope – in our parishes, in our schools and colleges and in our care homes and hospitals. Ambassadors of Christian Hope to our families, our friends and our communities.
To paraphrase the words of Victor Frankl – Let people see in our faces that we have a “why” to live for. That we have hope in our hearts – hope that no matter what the immense mystery we call God is ever-lifting up, ever-recreating, ever-resurrecting and drawing all things into his infinite love. Amen.