As we move toward the end of the month of June, we are at the halfway point of the Jubilee Year 2025 being celebrated by the Catholic Church. This year was initiated by the late Pope Francis on Dec. 24 of last year and will conclude on Jan. 6, 2026. The purpose of every Jubilee Year is to raise our minds and hearts to God in order to express gratitude to Him for our faith and seek renewal and deepening of our personal friendship with Jesus Christ.
I bring this up because there were opening celebrations, in Rome and in our Diocese of Rockford, late in December of last year. And there will be closing Masses and prayers this coming January. But we need to ask ourselves, what have we done in between? Most especially what have we done, as a parish and each of
us individually, to recall and put into practice this Jubilee reality?
Our late Pope Francis wisely dedicated this Jubilee Year to the theme of hope. Christian hope is not simply a projection of our human desire for the future. Neither is it a form of wishing for some sort of luck, especially financial, that would make our earthly and material
life easier.
Our hope is the hope of faith. It is the hope that answers the sense of emptiness that seems to be all around us. How many hearts reflect that emptiness by being dissatisfied because our society urges us to work for what will not last, seeking ever more wealth and material well-being? Our young people respond to surveys reporting profound sadness and loneliness, real indicators of a lack of hope.
The lack of hope is reinforced by the constant barrage of news, especially in recent weeks. The terrible use of technology to spread death in the Holy Land and in Ukraine and Russia, the shootings of legislators and business executives, all serve as a reminder that death awaits each of us.
But our Catholic faith is the message of hope that gives us courage in time of struggle and a purpose in every moment. It is a message that begins with the truth that God has made each of us, purposefully and out of love. Even with the passage of centuries and the billions of people who have walked the earth, God knows each of us and has a personal love for us. He seeks, in return, our love and our desire to be with Him.
We sense the injustice that infects our world and, if we are truthful, our own hearts. Our message of faith is that our sinfulness is known to God who is undeterred. He has sent His Son Jesus Christ to forgive our sins and heal us by His own death undertaken out of love.
Our faith tells us we are made in God’s image and we possess the freedom to choose to be with Him. Our lives are given purpose and meaning because Jesus has shown us the way to live correctly, in a manner that is truly human.
We are given the greatest hope because after Jesus died, He then rose from the dead. He offers us also life that overcomes the specter of earthly death.
There is so much more hope in our faith, especially in the sacraments and the call to prayer. This is such a profound answer to the hopelessness of a world without faith. Is it any wonder that we keeping reading accounts of parishes and dioceses with rising numbers of people coming to ask for baptism or for the completion of sacraments once begun but then abandoned? They are seeking hope for empty souls.
And what about those of us who have never abandoned the practice of faith? Is there not still more that our hearts can seek and receive?
The Jubilee Year 2025 is a call to deeper faith. It is a time to reach out to share our faith with others. It is a reminder that the hope given to us in Jesus Christ is hope that will not disappoint. Let’s not let this Jubilee Year go to waste.
