December 29, 2025 // Bishop

At Closing Mass of Jubilee Year, Bishop Rhoades Calls All to ‘Be Witnesses of Hope’

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades

 

The following homily was given by Bishop Rhoades at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne on Sunday, December 28, the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, on the occasion of the closing Mass of the Jubilee Year of Hope.

 

As we celebrate this Mass closing the Jubilee Year, we give thanks to God today for all the graces and blessings of this past year. When we began this Jubilee Year of Hope last year on this feast of the Holy Family here in our cathedral, we prayed for a renewal of hope in our hearts, in our families, and in the Church, recognizing that it is in the love of God that we find the hope that does not disappoint. We find this irrepressible hope in the One who is our hope and salvation, Jesus the Lord, Emmanuel, God-with-us. He is with us in all our joys and sorrows. He is always at our side, giving us His grace to persevere in trials, to press forward in life even when things are tough. We can always “rejoice in hope,” as St. Paul teaches us, if our lives are directed to an encounter with Jesus, the Lord of glory, who conquered sin and death by His death and resurrection. With hope, we can persevere amid the challenges, and sometimes tragedies, of life, because we know they are temporary, that eternal joy and peace await us if we remain in Christ’s love and live in His love.

 

I’ve preached more about the theological virtue of hope this past year than in any of my 42 years as a priest. It’s been beautiful to reflect on this sometimes-forgotten theological virtue. I look back at this past year and give thanks for the witness of hope of the faithful of our diocese in a multitude of ways – caring for the sick and the poor, tending to the needs of the suffering, giving company to the lonely, being generous to the needy here and around the world through Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services, participating in volunteer work with wonderful Catholic organizations like our St. Vincent de Paul Society conferences and the Christ Child Society, and many charitable associations. Christian hope is not something passive. It is an active hope. As Christians, we have a mission to be witnesses of hope, especially by loving one another as Christ has loved us. I also look back to the beautiful and very well-attended Jubilee Masses that I celebrated this past year at our two cathedrals, our six jubilee churches, and at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame. At each of those Masses, I experienced the vitality of our diocesan Church. And it was a great joy to see during this Jubilee Year 700 adult converts to the Catholic faith in our diocese, the largest number since I became bishop here 16 years ago. And not only that, it looks like the number of converts this year will even exceed last year’s number.

We celebrate the feast of the Holy Family during the Octave of Christmas, on the first Sunday after Christmas. Normally, on December 28th, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Innocents, but since it falls on a Sunday this year, it is displaced by the Feast of the Holy Family. Yet, the Gospel today recounts the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt, which took place because of King Herod’s order to his army to murder all male children under the age of 2 in Bethlehem and its vicinity. The paranoid King Herod ordered this massacre when he learned from the wise men about the newborn king of the Jews whom he feared would displace him as king. So, we still remember the Holy Innocents in our liturgy today. And we pray for all the innocent children today who suffer from exploitation, hunger, and war.

 

As we heard in the Gospel, before the massacre, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, telling him to flee to Egypt with Jesus and Mary. With complete docility, Joseph immediately did so. He always acted in obedience to God. He faithfully lived his vocation as the guardian of the Redeemer. And so, Jesus was saved. We can say that Joseph saved our Savior.

Just three days ago, we contemplated the Holy Family in the stable of Bethlehem and the adoration of the shepherds that first Christmas night. Today, we contemplate the Holy Family on the sorrowful road of exile, seeking refuge in Egypt. They experienced the tragic fate of refugees. Unfortunately, in our own time, millions of families can identify with this sad reality. So many families need to flee from their homelands today – to flee “from hunger, war, and other grave dangers, in search of security and a dignified life for themselves and for their families” (Pope Francis). For decades, our diocesan Catholic Charities has resettled many hundreds of refugee families who were in these situations, like so many of our Burmese families who are parishioners here at the cathedral and here with us today. We were deeply saddened this past year when the government drastically reduced the number of refugees allowed to enter our country. I have prayed often for those families living in poor and dangerous refugee camps who waited for years and had high hopes of coming to our country and here to Fort Wayne this year. I can only imagine their disappointment and grief. We were ready to receive them. May the Lord watch over them with His love and protection! And I pray that we may one day be able to receive them, following Our Lord’s command to welcome the stranger. In this fiscal year, our country has a record-low refugee admissions cap of 7,500, primarily for Afrikaners from South Africa. There are an estimated 43 million refugees in the world today, almost half of whom are children. And there are even more people who are internally displaced – about 68 million. These numbers represent the highest level of forced displacement ever recorded in history. Let us remember from this Jubilee Year that, as disciples of Jesus, we are called to be messengers and witnesses of hope in our world. It seems so difficult to bring hope to people like the refugees I’ve mentioned, but we must never give up. And even if our hands are tied right now, we can advocate for the welcoming of refugees and pray for all these brothers and sisters who are without a home and often without other things we can take for granted, like sufficient food, and clothing, clean water, health care, and education.

 

We can only speculate about the time that the Holy Family spent in Egypt. They probably stayed somewhere along the Nile Delta where there were many Jewish communities. Joseph likely got a job to support the family. It must have been difficult, but at least they were safe. Surely, like so many refugees today, they longed to return home. It’s thought that the Holy Family stayed in Egypt probably from one to three years. They knew it was safe to return home when an angel again appeared to Joseph to tell him that Herod had died and that he should take Mary and Jesus back home to Israel. Again, Joseph obeyed. Prudently, he went back not to Judea, where Herod’s cruel son, Archelaus, was ruling, but to Galilee, to the town of Nazareth.

It was in Nazareth, at that time a village of about 400 people, that Jesus grew up. The Holy Family lived a simple life there. We can say it was an ordinary family life. Their family home would have been like other family homes. They would have shared meals together, talked, interacted with relatives and neighbors, and shared many other joys. They also dealt with the everyday problems that every family encounters. They were not exempt from daily toil or challenges that face most families – illnesses, trying to make ends meet, the death of loved ones, etc. The Son of God was born into a human family and experienced life within a family. Jesus did His daily chores, went to school (most likely at the local synagogue), played with friends, and learned carpentry from His father. We can only speculate about these hidden years of Jesus’ life. We know that it was in the family, from his parents, that Jesus was brought up in the faith of Israel. He learned the Jewish prayers and practiced the traditional rituals and customs of His human ancestors. He learned the commandments of the Law, including the great commandment to love God with all one’s heart, soul, and mind. This love for God and for one another was the overriding characteristic of the home of the Holy Family. That’s what made it holy. The home of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph was a sacred place and a dwelling of true peace and unity. I said that theirs was an ordinary family life, but it was extraordinary in its love and unity. The Holy Family was filled with the virtues listed by St. Paul in the second reading from his letter to the Colossians: heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience … and, above all, love.

As we come to the end of this Jubilee Year of Hope, the Holy Family of Nazareth is a model of hope for us and our families. Amid the hardships of life, they had confidence in God and His providence. They were resilient in trials. Mary and Joseph maintained hope when there was no room for them in the inn. They maintained hope during their dangerous flight into Egypt, and when they lived in exile as refugees.

On this feast, let us pray for our own families. God desires to give us strength and virtue to live as the Holy Family. We ask the Lord to sanctify our families, making them holy in imitation of His family in Nazareth. May Mary Most Holy, the Queen of Families, intercede for our families, and may St. Joseph, her spouse, keep them under his powerful protection!