At close of Jubilee Year, bishop points to hope for years to come
It was a very good year.
Doors were opened, paths were trodden, offenses were blotted out and slates wiped clean.
The Jubilee Year of Hope did not disappoint.
“Brothers and sisters, we have experienced together the Jubilee Year,” Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell proclaimed during the Closing Mass for Jubilee 2025 in this diocese.
“As a united people, we have offered our praise, thanksgiving and supplication to God in union with those who are voiceless in the world, but who the Father’s heart hears and welcomes as beloved sons and daughters — the sick, the aged, prisoners, the poor,” he said.
“Through the Jubilee indulgence, the Lord has caused a river of grace and blessings to flow,” the bishop continued. “He has granted to all of us his hope, his peace.”
The Lord has strengthened weak hands, made firm feeble knees and counseled each individual to “Take courage” and “do not be afraid.”
In joyful hope
Pope Leo XIV directed Catholic bishops throughout the world to offer Mass in their local Cathedral to mark the close of the Jubilee Year, give thanks for all the blessings received through it, and reinforce the theological virtue of hope in all of God’s people.
It was Sunday, Dec. 28, the Feast of the Holy Family.
As the feastday falls during the Octave of Christmas, the Cathedral of St. Joseph remained decorated in Christmas finery.
Unseasonably warm and sunny weather greeted the faithful and illuminated the massive space.
“During this Jubilee Year, in the movement of the liturgical cycle, we have entered fully into the mystery of Christ, faith, hope and love,” said Bishop O’Donnell. “Now, strengthened by the experience of conversion, let us go back to the daily course of our lives.
“Like the disciples who saw Jesus face-to-face,” the bishop stated, “we shall hold onto the joy of our meeting with the Lord and firmly maintain the profession of our hope, for he is faithful to his promises.”
Pope Francis opened the Jubilee Year of Hope on the Feast of the Holy Family in 2024.
Catholics throughout the world observed the Jubilee Year with special activities aimed at mercy, charity, healing, reconciliation and concretely and actively growing in right relationship with God and all people.
Jubilee celebrations in the Church, in modern times held usually every 25 years, harken back to the early history of God’s chosen people.
In keeping with the Law of Moses, the Israelites of antiquity celebrated a jubilee year every 50 years.
They let their fields grow barren for a year, having saved up enough to eat during the previous year.
They celebrated a year of thanksgiving, renewal, liberation of captives and freedom from debt.
“It’s a way of giving great clemency,” Bishop O’Donnell explained. “It comes from a long, long ancient-standing tradition of every five decades, taking in the full cycle of a generation, that there is this year of favor granted, where all debts are forgiven, prisoners are set free, people return home from forced labor.”
Jesus presented himself as the fulfillment of a new Jubilee when he told the assembly at the synagogue in his hometown that words from the Book of Isaiah — “The Spirit of God is upon me, for he has anointed me to announce a year of favor for the Lord and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn” — were being fulfilled in their hearing.
Pope Boniface VIII called the Catholic Church to celebrate its first holy year in 1300. Since then, holy years have been times for repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, special blessings, prayers, pilgrimages and commitment to Christ.
The start and finish ceremonies — the opening and closing of the holy doors in the major basilicas in Rome — date back to 1500.
Hope springs eternal
Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday in 2025, chose “Pilgrims of Hope” as the theme for Jubilee 2025.
The purpose of all the prayers, sacrifices and pilgrimages throughout the Jubilee was to renew hope in all Christ’s followers and commission them to go forth to live that hope abundantly, actively and fruitfully.
“... Such that some 50 years from now, there will be fewer debts owed and fewer troubles to reconcile, because you and I will be living as disciples of Jesus Christ,” said Bishop O’Donnell.
He shed some light on the significance of hope.
“Hope is this confident trust in God’s ability to make all things right,” he said.
It’s much more than a fuzzy conviction that somehow, some way, things will all turn out okay.
“Hope goes deeper because it helps us know that even if things aren’t perfect, God’s love is eternal and constant. God is always present with us, wanting our good. Christ entered the world, walked our walk, died, was raised again, so that we might know the gift of salvation,” the bishop proclaimed.
Such powerful hope helps faithful disciples of Christ to be aware and confident of God’s hand at work amidst all the present joys and sufferings of this world.
Bishop O’Donnell said the Holy Family is a powerful example of trusting in God fully and putting hope into everyday practice.
Family life, infused with the power of Christ, is an ideal environment for cultivating such Godly virtues as patience and generosity.
It’s where children learn what it looks like to remain focused on God and seek his loving guidance when temptation and difficulties might otherwise prevail.
“We need God’s grace so that we can recognize that that moment, that challenge, that comment, that memory that temptation, they all become this space where God’s grace can move us to right action,” said Bishop O’Donnell.
Stories of Jesus and his family remind the faithful that they, too, had difficulties and learned to respond lovingly with grace.
“In the fullness of hope,” the bishop stated, “let us pray as a family in Christ that we will allow the love of God to grow within us, to help us desire to do good, to help us grow in virtue, so that our thoughts words and actions would always reflect the God who loves us.”
The Cathedral Choir chanted the “Te Deum,” an ancient hymn of praise and thanksgiving.
“God our Father,” the bishop prayed, “in this Jubilee Year, you have opened to your Church the way of salvation and filled your sons and daughters with the hope that comes from you.
“Receive our good intentions and welcome our desire to convert our lives to you, so that we may be true witnesses of the Gospel,” he prayed.
