This Jubilee Year 2025, with the theme Pilgrims of Hope, invites us to joyfully celebrate the spirit that is the hallmark of our faith: hope. Our Catholic faith always awakens hope for something better: the hope that moves us to live more fully. Together, as Church, we make this Jubilee an opportunity for renewal and for living our faith more deeply.
The Jubilee celebration also invites us to cross the Holy Doors of St. Peter’s Basilica. As I reflect on this, I ask myself: How much do I allow Jesus to cross over into my heart—or, rather, how open is my heart for him to enter? Jesus is waiting. He yearns to be received into the heart of each one of us!
The Jubilee — this joy of forgiveness, of God's mercy — isn’t only about an external act. Rather, it's about the encounter with Jesus in our daily lives.
Often our hearts remain closed — or only partially open. Prejudice, shame, fear, mistrust, etc. keep us from opening our heart to the infinite love of Jesus. To open our hearts, their doors need to be oiled and softened by the power of Jesus, who knocks at the door, waiting for us to let him in so he can give us the jubilee of his love in his infinite mercy. He knocks with the gentleness of his love. He is a gentleman. He waits, ready to enter when we open.
Crossing the Holy Doors or visiting the designated pilgrimage churches in the diocese is an invitation to give thanks and to follow the example of Jesus. Out of love for us, he freely chose to be nailed to the cross and let a lance open his heart. He freely chose to give up his life for our salvation. Jesus, who is love, teaches us that for us to love, we must first let ourselves be loved. Only then can we let ourselves be filled with hope and become missionaries of what we receive.
It bears repeating: What a magnificent gift we have in the Jubilee Year invitation! It’s a chance to visit the designated parishes, to go on pilgrimage, to seek and receive grace. But the greatest hope of this Jubilee Year is the journey of allowing the lance of Jesus' love to pierce our own hearts. When we do that, our hearts open to the jubilee of his love and experience the depth of his mercy! And in peace, with him and with ourselves, we become missionaries of hope.
Then, the joy we experience doesn’t come from ‘gaining’ but from ‘receiving’ indulgences and from knowing that, through the sacramental life of Jesus, we can experience God's divine amnesia, where he no longer sees our sins. And, as we experience his mercy, we let him teach us to see ourselves as he sees us.
Every wound — of the heart, the soul, even in our memory — when pierced by the lance of Jesus' love, is healed. By uniting our suffering with the suffering of Jesus on the cross, our pain is redeemed and transformed into joy. Where once there was pain and darkness, now, there are scars — scars from which emanate the sweet aroma of God's love. Wounds touched by love become healing medicine to others because now they radiate the one who has loved us since before creation.
Let us let love, which is always new, heal us. Let it transform us into missionaries of hope.
The Jubilee Year
Jubilee 2025: Pilgrims of Hope began Dec. 24, 2024 when Pope Francis journeyed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Jubilee Year continues under the leadership of Pope Leo XIV, who carried the cross and led pilgrims June 9, 2025 during the Jubilee of the Holy See. The Jubilee Year, which includes specific dates to honor artists, volunteers, permanent deacons, communicators, marching bands and many other groups, concludes Jan. 6, 2026. According to Catholic News Service, organizers prepared to welcome 35 million visitors to four official Jubilee sites: Holy Doors at St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul. Even the Trevi Fountain in Rome was cleaned and restored in anticipation of guests visiting the area.