Pilgrims into Hope

Some thoughts on hope, arising from how our world is, and following on from my previous post, earlier this week...

It's already a month since the Jubilee Year, our Jubilee of Hope, began to end over the Christmas season, with the closing of the first of the Holy Doors at the Roman basilicas. The doors have been sealed shut, but, as we were reminded in a homily from St Mary Major: the Heart of the Risen One, an inexhaustible source of new life, remains always open to those who hope in him... And that the door that truly matters remains the door of our heart: it opens when we listen to the Word of God, it expands when we welcome our brothers and sisters, and it is strengthened when we forgive and ask for forgiveness.

Yes; the Jubilee is over, but its calls and its fruits continue, as can its graces. And whilst the Jubilee of Hope has officially ended, our need for hope, and need for encouragement to hope, is greater than ever. As I wrote a few days ago, 'every day brings news, whether domestic or from across the world, which makes me ache, despair, cry out in anger...' All of which seems to make a mockery of this whole idea of hope. 

But just as we are called to love, with open, ever-expanding hearts, we are also called to hope! Right now especially, hope has to be at the heart of our lives, our decisions, our prayer, our passion and our underlying faith in every victory and promise flowing from Jesus' death and resurrection. Even when we feel as though we are clinging to hope by our fingernails, we have to hope. And I am reminded that although we were called Pilgrims of Hope, the official Latin motto for the Jubilee was Peregrinantes in Spem - Pilgrims into Hope. 

So, we do not need to already be filled with hope before we set out. Rather, every day, with every step, alone and with others, whether hope-filled or empty and near despair, we can journey into hope: into the vastness and the depths of an inexhaustible well, in which we will find the strength and the light - and of course, the hope - that we so desperately need.

And so, let us continue on this journey, into greater hope, and into all that this will call us to, holding each other, and our world's many needs, with our prayer, our encouragement and our love.