(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 12.03.2024).- “For pilgrims of hope” is the prayer intention chosen by Pope Francis for the month of December. It is a special invitation within the context of the upcoming Jubilee 2025. For this reason, the Pope asks us to “pray that this upcoming Jubilee strengthen us in our faith, helping us to recognize the Risen Christ in the midst of our lives, transforming us into pilgrims of Christian hope.”
“Pilgrims of hope,” the theme of The Pope Video for December, reflects one of the basic pillars of this pontificate. This is why Pope Francis asks the faithful to be witnesses of “Christian hope” in a world dominated by desperation and distrust. “Christian hope is a gift from God that fills our lives with joy. And today, we need it a lot. The world really needs it a lot!” the Pope states in his video message entrusted to the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, and produced in collaboration with the Fondazione Pro Rete Mondiale di Preghiera del Papa and the Dicastery for Evangelization.
The boat and the anchor
In the Statio Orbis during the pandemic in a deserted Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Francis used the Gospel metaphor of the boat in the midst of the storm to recall the fragility and disorientation of humanity in the face of great trials. In a certain sense, the Holy Father brings us back to that boat so as to highlight the importance of the anchor in this month’s prayer intention. “Hope,” he says, accompanying his words with very eloquent gestures, “is an anchor – an anchor that you cast over with a rope to be moored on the shore. We have to hold onto the rope of hope.”
In the footsteps of Abraham
“The virtue of hope gives us a lot of strength to walk through life,” Pope Francis said on 28 December 2016 during the General Audience dedicated to the figure of Abraham. On the one hand, Abraham was not “afraid to see reality for what it was,” and on the other hand, he was capable of “going beyond human reasoning, beyond the world’s wisdom and prudence, beyond what was normally considered common sense, to believe in the impossible.” Like Abraham, the protagonists of this month’s The Pope Video set out on a journey, beginning with their own difficulties: the worries of a woman in front of an empty pantry, the doubts of a student regarding the future.
“Day by day, let us fill our lives with the gift of hope that God gives us, and through us, let us allow it to reach everyone who is looking for it,” the Pope says in his message that accompanies his prayer intention. And this is exactly what happens to the protagonists in the video: on their journey, both of them meet some “pilgrims of hope” who welcome and comfort them, inviting them to join them on their symbolic journey toward the Holy Door which will remain open during the entire Jubilee year.
Jubilee 2025, an invitation to walk in hope
Jubilee 2025, whose theme is “Pilgrims of hope”, will be a unique moment for celebration and profound reflection. Also called the “Holy Year,” it is not only a stop on the journey of faith, but also an invitation to recognize Christ in the everyday. Pope Francis highlighted in his letter to the Pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, that the pandemic weakened hope in society, and that “we must fan the flame of hope that has been given us.” In this sense, the Jubilee is presented as an opportunity to strengthen hope and to share it in a world that urgently needs it.
The same Dicastery collaborated with the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network to produce this month’s video which, as Archbishop Rino Fisichella explains, seeks to convey a basic message to young people as well. “We are grateful for the opportunity of supporting the Holy Father and The Pope Video initiative regarding Hope in view of Jubilee 2025. Just a few days before the opening of the first Ordinary Jubilee of the 21st century, let us recall the verse from Psalm 27 with which Pope Francis concluded the Bull of Indiction of the Holy Year, Spes non confundit: ‘Hope in the Lord! Hold firm, take heart and hope in the Lord!’ (Psalm 27:14) These words are an invitation to never lose hope in whatever controversy or difficulty in life, not even in the situation in which our world finds itself today, wounded by war, violence and suffering. Let us pray that through this video, a means of communication intended for young people, that everyone might receive the message of hope that does not disappoint because it is founded on God’s love.”
The world needs hope
“To hope against hope”, like Abraham did is not rationally possible. “But reason does not have all the solutions, even more so in today’s society, so filled with contradictions. Hope is an unavoidable challenge,” states Stefano Simontacchi, founding member and member of the administrative board of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network Foundation, who contributed to the production of this video. “For quite some time now, young people have been seeing the future as a threat that causes unhappiness. Giving into fear puts them at risk of losing the meaning of existence itself. As Jesus Himself teaches us in the Gospels, faith is the antidote for fear. Hope is the embodiment in our lives of this faith dimension. I believe that this positive spiral that triggers a life lived consciously and with a purpose consists in a point of departure, of hope (trust), with a disposition of gratitude, and with an energy that moves everything and translates everything into action, that is love. So, let’s welcome Pope Francis’s invitation, and dispose ourselves to live as pilgrims of hope.”
An invitation to journey together
Father Cristóbal Fones, S.J., International Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, reflects: “With the opening of the Holy Door at the beginning of the Jubilee 2025, the Pope symbolically shows us the many doors that need to be opened – doors to go out of in order to meet others, and to let others come into our lives; doors of freedom grounded in our Christian hope. As disciples of the Risen Jesus, we are not adrift on our pilgrim journey, but are firmly anchored to Him. This Jubilee is a tremendous opportunity to open ourselves courageously to share the light of hope that faith gives us, especially with all those who, in the midst of the here and now, and uncertainty in which we live, have lost the ability to dream.”
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