Jubilee Year 2025-
The Catholic Church has a tradition where the pope proclaims a jubilee every 25 years. Pope Francis writes that Jubilee is a time to re-establish our relationships with God, one another, and all of creation through acts of charity, penance, and pilgrimage. As Christians we are called to seek and spread hope in our troubled world because Jesus is the door of our salvation. Pope Francis chose the theme to be Pilgrims of Hope.
Who are our models for Pilgrims of Hope? I think of the Holy Family, whose feast we just celebrated Sunday December 29. There are several pilgrimages they make in Scripture: first, to Bethlehem for the census and Jesus’ birth, second, their flight to Egypt to keep Jesus safe from King Herod, and third, their pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover when Jesus was 12. A pilgrimage for them was not convenient, they had no cars or airplanes or trains. They had to use their feet or ride on pack animals such as donkeys, and journeys could take days or weeks to arrive at their destination.
At the mass I attended that Sunday, the homilist talked about FAMILY as an acronym F=Faith and forgiveness, A=Affirmation for each other, M=. . .The homilist completely forgot what the M stood for and sheepishly said, "Sorry, I am having a senior moment. Hopefully it will come back to me. Let's go on." I=Intimacy (Into-me-you-see) L=Love and Y-You are for others. Later, after he finished the Prayers of the Faithful he said, "This is embarrassing to say, but I just remembered that the M is for Making Memories! " The Holy Family definitely exhibits all these characteristics in the gospel story.
The story involves the Holy Family’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. Things get complicated when Jesus stayed behind in the temple and it took Mary and Joseph three days to locate him. Somehow Jesus did not communicate to them where he was going to be. Once he is found, Mary says to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” I am sure Mary did not calmly say these words. She had to have been a nervous wreck as any mother would be upon losing a child. Jesus doesn’t apologize in the scripture but if you read between the lines he returned to Nazareth and was obedient to his parents. I imagine there was an apology issued somewhere! This story demonstrates faith and forgiveness, love and I am sure was retold as a memory for many years.
You can listen to the segment here:
