The sentence that heads this article is the title of the Bull of Convocation of the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025, which has just begun. A Holy Year that the Pope has just convoked, following a tradition of the Church.
Hope is a key element in this message, reminding us of the importance of living with faith and confidence in the future. With these words of St. Paul, begins n. 2 of the BullTherefore, since we are justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained through faith the grace in which we are established, and through him we rejoice in hope of the glory of God... And hope will not be disappointed, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us" (Rom 5:1-2, 5).
In the following paragraphs, the Pope invites all the faithful to pray for peace in the world; for young couples so that the desire to have children may grow and "the many empty cradles that already exist in many parts of the world" may be filled (n. 9).
He asks "to offer prisoners a concrete sign of closeness, I myself wish to open a Holy Door in a prison, so that it may be for them a symbol that invites them to look to the future with hope and a renewed commitment to life" (n. 10).
He then invites us to pray that the hopes of the young, of migrants, of the elderly, of grandfathers and grandmothers, of the poor, and of the most indebted countries to get back on their feet. And we can add: that all abortion clinics may be closed; that families may live together "until death do us part.
He then underlines the reasons for our hope in the witness of the martyrs "who, firm in faith in the risen Christ, knew how to renounce their earthly life so as not to betray their Lord" (n. 20), and received "happiness in eternal life".
It thus clearly expresses the reality of "eternal life", to which we are called to live in full happiness in the Love of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
"I believe in eternal life": this is how our faith expresses it, and Christian hope finds in these words a fundamental basis. Hope, in fact, "is the theological virtue by which we aspire to eternal life as our happiness".
The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council affirms: "When (...) this divine foundation and this hope of eternal life are lacking, human dignity suffers very serious harm - this is what often happens - and the enigmas of life and death, of guilt and pain, remain unresolved, often leading man to despair" (n. 19).
And after pointing out all the hopes that we have recalled, and the reality of the "judgment of God" that we all have to meet at our death, n. 23 of the Bull speaks very clearly of the need for the Sacrament of Penance, which prepares our soul so that, repentant for the sins committed, it can ask God for forgiveness.
"The sacrament of Penance assures us that God takes away our sins (...). Sacramental Reconciliation - Confession - is not only a beautiful spiritual opportunity, but represents a decisive, essential and unrenounceable step in the journey of faith of each one of us".
Living with humility and love this request for forgiveness, we recompose our Christian life, and we renew our faith in "the hope that does not disappoint", and we leave our desires in the hands of God. Virgin Mary.
"Hope finds in the Mother of God its highest witness. In her we see that hope is not a futile optimism, but a gift of grace in the realism of life. (...) It is not by chance that popular piety continues to invoke the Blessed Virgin as Stella marisa title expressive of the certain hope that, in the stormy events of life, the Mother of God comes to our aid, sustains us and invites us to trust and to continue to hope" (n. 24).
With these dispositions, "the next Jubilee will be characterized by hope that does not wane, hope in God. May it also help us to regain the necessary confidence-both in the Church and in society-in interpersonal bonds, in international relations, in the promotion of the dignity of every person and in respect for creation" (n. 25).
Ernesto Juliálawyer and priest.
Collaboration published in Religión Confidencial. Holy Year: Hope does not disappoint
