Pilgrims of Hope

By: Ivonne J. Hernandez

"We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart, and far-sighted vision. The forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire; that is why I have chosen as the motto of the Jubilee, Pilgrims of Hope."  (Letter from Pope Francis announcing the Jubilee 2025)

​Tradition dictates that each Jubilee is proclaimed through the publication of a Papal (or Pontifical) ‘Bull of Indiction’. The one for this year’s jubilee begins with these words:

BULL OF INDICTION
OF THE ORDINARY JUBILEE
OF THE YEAR 2025
FRANCIS
BISHOP OF ROME
SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD
TO ALL WHO READ THIS LETTER
MAY HOPE FILL YOUR HEARTS
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‘SPES NON CONFUNDIT. “Hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5). In the spirit of hope, the Apostle Paul addressed these words of encouragement to the Christian community of Rome. Hope is also the central message of the coming Jubilee that, in accordance with an ancient tradition, the Pope proclaims every twenty-five years. My thoughts turn to all those pilgrims of hope who will travel to Rome in order to experience the Holy Year and to all those others who, though unable to visit the City of the Apostles Peter and Paul, will celebrate it in their local Churches. For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the “door” (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as “our hope” (1 Tim 1:1).’

​(Spes non confundit - Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 (9 May 2024) | Francis)

A priest shared a beautiful story with me recently. He was asked to open his parish to large group of individuals who were displaced due to the recent floods. He had plenty of room in the parish center, but the building had no power. As the individuals set up their cots in different areas of the room, he noticed two gentlemen who parked themselves right next to an electric outlet and immediately plugged their phones. The priest approached them and jokingly said “If you have found a way to charge your phones, you must definitely be connected to a higher power than I am.” One of the men smiled and said, “Once power is restored, guess who will be the first to charge his phone?”
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What would happen if we all lived our lives with that kind of hope? I guess it depends on where we place our hope. Do we put our hopes in things that are passing, or do we place our trust in God? I remember watching a group of acrobats in the circus, trusting in each other before every jump. They trained and prepared, yet… at the bottom of it all was a safety net. That is for me an image of my trust in God. 

“Hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
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The things we worry about, the things we are afraid of, they all dissipate when we truly think about how much God loves each and every one of us.  

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or the sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35,37-39).

The question then is, do we believe this? Are we convinced, deep in our very core, of our identity as children of God? It is deeply grounded in this confidence that we can wait patiently for God. I do not know what the men in the parish center did while waiting for the power to be restored. Maybe they played cards or took a nap. I sincerely doubt they climbed the electric pole outside to fix the problem themselves. They knew the electric company was aware of their situation and someone would eventually come. They did all that they could, and a little bit more. They were ready with their plugged phones.

Perhaps we can pray this year with that kind of hope. Trusting that God knows our needs, let us wait peacefully while remaining “plugged in” in our prayer. May he find us ready, attentive, filled with faith, hope, and love.

The Holy Father closes his Bull with these words:

​“The coming Jubilee will thus be a Holy Year marked by the hope that does not fade, our hope in God. May it help us to recover the confident trust that we require, in the Church and in society, in our interpersonal relationships, in international relations, and in our task of promoting the dignity of all persons and respect for God’s gift of creation. May the witness of believers be for our world a leaven of authentic hope, a harbinger of new heavens and a new earth (cf. 2 Pet 3:13), where men and women will dwell in justice and harmony, in joyful expectation of the fulfilment of the Lord’s promises.

Let us even now be drawn to this hope! Through our witness, may hope spread to all those who anxiously seek it. May the way we live our lives say to them in so many words: “Hope in the Lord! Hold firm, take heart and hope in the Lord!” (Ps 27:14). May the power of hope fill our days, as we await with confidence the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and glory, now and forever.

Given in Rome, at Saint John Lateran, on 9 May, the Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the year 2024, the twelfth of my Pontificate.

FRANCIS”

​(Spes non confundit - Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 (9 May 2024) | Francis)

Ivonne J. Hernandez

Ivonne is a Catholic wife, mother, Lay Associate of the Blessed Sacrament, and President of Elisheba House. Speaker and writer, author of The Rosary: Eucharistic Meditations. Alongside her husband, Rick Hernandez, she coordinates the RCIA program at their home parish. A lover of choral music, Ivonne is a member of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay. She and her husband live in Trinity, FL, with two of their young adult sons.