God Incarnate in Jesus Christ is our hope
Upon meditating on the homily given by Pope Francis in the occasion of the opening of the Holy Door and the Midnight Mass, at the beginning of the Ordinary Jubilee of Hope, in the solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, many reflections just come across my mind. In that beautiful, simple and profound homily delivered on Tuesday 24 December 2024, Pope Francis taught us what the Jubilee of Hope is all about.
The subject of the Jubilee is God made man in the person of Jesus Christ. The Pope said: Sisters and brothers, this is our hope. God is Emmanuel, God-with-us. The infinitely great has made himself tiny; divine light has shone amid the darkness of our world; the glory of heaven has appeared on earth. And how? As a little child. If God can visit us, even when our hearts seem like a lowly manger, we can truly say: Hope is not dead; hope is alive and it embraces our lives forever. Hope does not disappoint!
The jubilee of hope is telling you and me that there is hope for you and me because God forgives everything. Pope Francis insisted: Brothers and sisters, with the opening of the Holy Door we have inaugurated a new Jubilee, and each of us can enter into the mystery of this extraordinary event. Tonight, the door of hope has opened wide to the world. 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.
Like the shepherds of Bethlehem you and I are called to be apostles of hope by recovering, being renew and plant seeds of hope with haste as they did. Pope Francis reminds us of this dynamic when he said: To receive this gift, we are called to set out with the marvel of the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem. The Gospel tells us that, having heard the message of the angel, they “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. And there is so much desolation at this time. We think of wars, of children being shot at, bombs on schools and hospitals. Do not delay, do not hesitate, but allow yourselves to be drawn along by the Good News.
Being at the service of hope means bringing hope by the way we live our daily lives and not being afraid of correcting what is wrong. The Holy Father told us: With haste, then, let us set out to behold the Lord who is born for us, our hearts joyful and attentive, ready to meet him and then to bring hope to the way we live our daily lives. 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.
Christian hope makes us responsible for and compassionate with ourselves, others and our world we are living in. That is why Pope Francis highlighted: 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. And here perhaps it will do us good to ask ourselves about compassion: do I have compassion? Am I able to suffer-with? Let us reflect on this.
Lord Jesus, help me set out with haste, as your disciple to hope in you and let that hope make me an apostle of your hope to carry it with me, without delay, wherever you send me. Lord, make me a pilgrim of your light amid the darkness of the world around me. Amen.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
