Spiritual Corner -- Ordinary Jubilee 2025: “Pilgrims of Hope”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Our Pope proclaims 2025 as the Church’s Ordinary Jubilee Year. The theme of this Jubilee cerebration is “Pilgrims of Hope”. He also promulgates the Jubilee Bull: “Hope does not disappoint”, encouraging people to be renewed in hope.

The Pope in his Papal Bull points out to us: “Everyone knows what it is to hope. Though we do not know what will happen in the future, yet people have expectation and desire of good things to come. However, we sometimes have conflicting feelings because of uncertainty about the future: ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt. We often come across people who are discouraged, pessimistic and cynical about the future, as if nothing can bring them happiness and hope. May the Jubilee be an opportunity for all of us to be renewed in hope, and God’s Word helps find reasons for that hope.” (Bull 1)

To us people of faith, the hope of Christians is founded on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Pope says,” Christ died, was buried, was raised and appeared. For our sake, He experienced the drama of death. The Father’s love raised Him in the power of the Holy Spirit, and made of His humanity the first fruits of our eternal salvation. Christian hope consists precisely in this: that in facing death, which appears to be the end of everything, we have the certainty that, thanks to the grace of Christ imparted to us in baptism, ‘life is changed, not ended’, forever. Buried with Christ in baptism, we also receive in His resurrection the gift of a new life that breaks down the walls of death, making it a passage to everlasting life.” (Bull 20)

We are not alone on the road of pilgrimage. The Pope says,“ The martyrs provided the most convincing testimony for this hope. Steadfast in their faith in the risen Christ, they renounced life itself here below, rather than betray their Lord. Martyrs, as confessors of life that knows no end, are present and numerous in every age, and perhaps even more so in our own day. We need to treasure their testimony, in order to confirm our hope and allow it to bear good fruit.” (Bull 20)

Under the light of eternal hope, every Christian is called to be a “Pilgrim of Hope” (Bulls 21, 22). Let us pray that God will lead us to live a good life within this Jubilee Year, we may first start from ourselves and then extend to our families, communities and society. The ways to live a mean-ingful Jubilee Year and detailed information may be found in the official website of the Jubilee Year: https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/zh/giubileo-2025/logo.html

Your Pastor,
Fr. Francis Chong