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Jubilee 2025 is a holy year in the Catholic Church that takes place every 25 years. For this Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis has chosen \u201cPeregrinantes in spem\u201d (Pilgrims of Hope) as his motto.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s pause for a few minutes to consider this theological virtue of Christian hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biblical hope is based on a person, not on circumstances. Catholic theologian Karl Rahner writes that man is that being who has \u201cthe audacity to hope\u201d<\/em>. Our hope is well-founded: our reason to hope is God, who has shown his benevolence towards us by sending us his Son, \u201cChrist Jesus, our hope\u201d<\/em> (1 Tim 1:1). Hope therefore goes beyond hope, for it is not merely an expectation, but the certainty founded in faith that God gives happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Promise is the hallmark of Jewish hope, which is fundamentally messianic and entirely focused on the future. The long history of hope in the Bible begins with Abraham. Abraham believed the promise made to him: \u201cHoping against hope, he believed\u201d<\/em> (Rom 4:18), and Old Testament believers are those \u201cwho beforehand have hoped in Christ\u201d<\/em> (Eph 1:12).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christian hope is founded on a first fulfillment of the promise, on the Paschal event of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:33-39). The Epistle to the Hebrews presents the coming of Jesus as \u201cthe introduction of a better hope\u201d<\/em> (7:19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Protestant theologian J\u00fcrgen Moltmann’s \u201cTheology of Hope\u201d<\/em> states that \u201ctrue Christian hope begins with Christ’s resurrection and his promise of new life\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We read in Peter’s first letter (chapter 1, verses 3 to 5): \u201cBlessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: in his great mercy, he has made us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that will know no corruption, defilement or blight. This inheritance is reserved in heaven for you, whom the power of God is guarding through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last times\u201d.<\/em> The foundation of Christian hope, then, is not a teaching but an event: the resurrection of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pope Francis in his December 11, 2024 audience explained that \u201chope is not an empty word\u201d<\/em> but \u201ca certainty, because it is founded on God’s faithfulness<\/strong> to his promises\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The object of hope is the happiness promised by God, the coming kingdom of God; to be saved from evil, sin and death, and to share in the glory of God in eternal life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This Christian hope transforms our perception of the future, offering a new and meaningful life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Christian tradition, hope is considered a theological virtue, i.e. a virtue that comes directly from God and constitutes for us men the path by which we reach God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hope is therefore a gift from God<\/strong>, a virtue oriented towards God’s promised salvation, an active trust in God’s goodness and His plan of love for every human being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The theological virtues have their source in God and refer to God. Hope is the virtue by which we firmly and enduringly desire that for which we are created: \u201cto praise, respect and serve God our Lord\u201d<\/em>, according to the Principle and Foundation<\/em> of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hope, as a theological virtue, is intimately linked to faith<\/strong> and charity<\/strong>, forming a fundamental triptych for the Christian life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his hymn to charity (1 Cor 13), Saint Paul places hope between faith, the foundation of everything, and charity, which will not pass away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hope is nourished by faith, which enables us to believe in what we cannot yet see (Rom 8:24-25). Faith leads us to long for a better future, a definitive and fully happy future that we call salvation; it is faith that gives us the reason to hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hope is also strengthened by charity, which impels us to love and serve others as we await the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1817, also defines hope as a theological virtue \u201cby which we desire as our happiness the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal Life, placing our trust in the promises of Christ<\/strong> and relying, not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit<\/strong>. Let us hold fast the confession of hope, for he who promised is faithful\u201d<\/em> (Heb 10:23). \u201cHe has poured out this Spirit on us in abundance through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, justified by the grace of Christ, we may obtain in hope the inheritance of eternal life\u201d<\/em> (Titus 3:6-7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the letter to the Romans (15:13), Saint Paul writes: \u201cMay the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in the faith, so that you may overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis exhorts us: \u201cMay the Jubilee be for everyone an opportunity to rekindle hope<\/strong>. Let us be guided by the Apostle Paul: hope does not disappoint, since God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us<\/em>\u201d (Rom 5:1-2.5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pope affirms that Christian hope neither deceives nor disappoints, because it is founded on the certainty that nothing and no-one can ever separate us from God’s love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this Jubilee Year, then, we can ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen our hope<\/strong>, so that we may have the strength to go forward, step by step, in the footsteps of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jubilee 2025 is a holy year in the Catholic Church that takes place every 25 years. For this Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis has chosen \u201cPeregrinantes in spem\u201d (Pilgrims of Hope) as his motto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflexion-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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