December 30, 2024 // Bishop

Jubilee Year of Hope Begins

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades

During this Jubilee Year, Bishop Encourages All to Walk with the Holy Family

The following homily was delivered by Bishop Rhoades on Sunday, December 29, the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne to mark the opening of the Jubilee Year 2025. The homily was also read on the same day by Father Mark Gurtner, vicar general of the diocese, at the Jubilee Mass at St. Matthew Cathedral in South Bend.

On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis inaugurated this Jubilee Year when he opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Holy Father decreed that diocesan bishops throughout the world celebrate the solemn opening of the Jubilee Year in their cathedrals today, December 29, the solemnity of the Holy Family.

Jubilee Years, also called Holy Years, involve pilgrimages, which is why the Holy Father instructed bishops to gather with our people at a nearby church for the opening prayers of the Jubilee Year and then walk from that church to our cathedrals for the opening Mass. That is why we began our celebration today at St. Mary, Mother of God Church, and processed here to our cathedral.

Pilgrimages are a reminder that we are a pilgrim Church. In our lives on this earth, we are pilgrims on a journey. The Catholic tradition of pilgrimages has roots in the Old Testament. We heard in the Gospel today about the Holy Family’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. Three times a year, devout Jews would make a pilgrimage to the holy city to pray and offer sacrifices to God in the temple. In this Jubilee Year, millions of people will go on pilgrimage to Rome. The pope has instructed us bishops to designate Jubilee churches in our dioceses where people can go on pilgrimage and obtain the Jubilee Indulgence under the usual conditions for receiving a plenary indulgence, including going to confession, receiving holy Communion, and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father. I have designated one church in each of the six vicariates of our diocese as Jubilee churches, in addition to our two cathedrals and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame. I invite you to make a pilgrimage this year to these churches, to receive the gift of God’s mercy from the treasury of the Church, the Jubilee Indulgence.

The central theme of this Jubilee Year is hope. This year is a wonderful opportunity for us to be renewed in our Christian hope, renewed by the grace of the Lord Jesus who is our hope and salvation. It is in God’s grace that we find hope, “the hope that does not disappoint,” because, as St. Paul says, “the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” The Holy Spirit enlightens us with the light of hope, the hope we celebrate during this holy season of Christmas, the hope we have because, as the angel announced to the shepherds, “a Savior has been born for us who is Christ and Lord.” Jesus is our hope. He gives direction and purpose to our lives. In our earthly lives, we experience uncertainties, disappointments, troubles, and anxieties that can lead to discouragement, pessimism, cynicism, and even despair of ever finding happiness and peace. That is why we need to be renewed in our hope. And that’s why the Holy Father made hope the theme of this Jubilee Year.

“Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one can separate us from God’s love” (Pope Francis). And so, we journey in this world with hope in the Lord, as pilgrims of hope. We can do so with the grace and power we receive from Christ. The Lord helps us to persevere in trials, to press forward in life even when things are tough, when we face suffering and other tribulations. Even in trials, we can “rejoice in hope,” as St. Paul teaches us. This happens when we are steadfast in our faith, when we persevere in prayer, and when 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 press forward amid the sorrows of life, knowing that they are temporary, that eternal joy and peace await us if we remain in Christ’s love and live in His love.

St. John of the Cross taught that at the sunset of our lives, we will be judged by love. Presumption, like despair, is a sin against hope. It is presumptuous for us to think that we can go to heaven without loving God and our neighbor. Of course, we need God’s grace to help us. He gives us the capacity to love Him and to act in conformity with His commandments of charity.

In this Jubilee Year, “We are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind” (Pope Francis). We are signs of hope when we witness to God’s love, especially to the sick and suffering, the lonely and the abandoned, the poor and the needy. We give them hope when we show them love, care, and compassion, thereby witnessing to Christ our Hope. As Christians, we have a mission to be witnesses and heralds of hope. Our world needs this hope. We are witnesses of the hope of the Gospel when we love one another as Jesus commanded us, as we heard in the second reading today from the First Letter of St. John.

Today is the beautiful feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph was certainly filled with the virtues listed by St. Paul. They were truly a holy family, filled with love, fully engaged in the desire to do the will of God. Mary and Joseph had great faith, yet, as human beings, they didn’t always immediately understand the will of God. In His human nature, Jesus advanced in wisdom and grace under the tutelage of Mary and Joseph. At the same time, Mary and Joseph grew in learning and understanding of the will of God from their divine Son. We see this in today’s Gospel. Mary and Joseph were naturally very distressed and anxious when they couldn’t find Jesus while they were traveling home for the Passover festival in Jerusalem. They were so anxious that, when they found Jesus in the temple, Mary asked Him “Son, why have you done this to us?” They had been worried sick about Him, as any loving parent would be if their child went missing. Jesus replied: “Why are you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” The Gospel tells us that “they did not understand what He said to them.” They would come to understand. In fact, the Gospel tells us that Mary “kept all these things in her heart.” She would come to understand better that Jesus had to be in His Father’s house, the underlying meaning being that He had to be about His Father’s business, obeying His will.

Losing the 12-year-old Jesus was a great sorrow for Mary, one of her seven sorrows. It foreshadowed her greater sorrow later, a sorrow that also involved three days, when Jesus was again about His Father’s business, the days of His Passion, death, and entombment. By then, Mary had come to understand Jesus’ mission from the Father, and she shared in it most deeply at the foot of the cross. But like when her sorrow was turned into joy when she and Joseph found Jesus in the temple, her sorrow was turned into joy when her Son was raised by His Father from the dead.

The sorrows of our life on earth will also be turned into joy if we, like Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, persevere in faith and love. That’s our great hope as we journey through life in this valley of tears. Mary and Joseph teach us hope. They were separated from Jesus for three days, yet they didn’t stop searching for Him. They persevered in hope until they eventually found Him in His Father’s house.

It wasn’t Mary and Joseph’s fault that they lost Jesus. But with us, it is our fault when this happens because we only lose Him when we fall into sin. It is a grace, if at such times, we feel the anxiety of Mary and Joseph, and that in this healthy anxiety, we search for Jesus anew. If we do, we will find Him. We will find Him in the Temple of the Church, His Body, in His Word that is preached, and in the sacraments that are celebrated. We can be restored to Jesus’ friendship and grow in that friendship, the friendship that renews our hope. This is what this Jubilee Year is all about.

Let us walk the pilgrimage of this Jubilee Year of Hope with the Holy Family at our side! May Jesus, Mary, and Joseph bless and guide us on our journey!