December 1, 2024 - Pastor Message
December 21, 2024PILGRIMS OF HOPE JUBILEE 2025
PILGRIMS OF HOPE
JUBILEE 2025
“Justified by faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom we have access by faith to his grace, in which we stand and are proud in the hope of God’s glory. Not only that, but we are proud in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces patience, patience produces proof of grace, and proof of grace, hope. Hope, however, does not confound, because the charity of God is spread in our hearts through his Holy Spirit, who is his gift to us. For Christ, while we were still weak, at the accorded time died for the unholy…If, therefore, when we were enemies, we have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more will we who are reconciled be saved by his life. Not only that, but we are proud in God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom we now receive reconciliation” (Romans 5:1-6, 10-11).
This weekend, we begin the season of Advent and, with it, a new liturgical year. In addition to the normal excitement that comes with a new year, this year brings added joy as we join the Church around the world in celebrating a year of jubilee. Rooted in the jubilee year of the Old Testament (Leviticus 25), in which debts were forgiven, slaves freed, and even the land itself was given rest as a reminder that all things belong to the Lord, who redeems his people, the Church celebrates a jubilee every twenty-five years to remember in a special way God’s unfathomable mercy, redeeming us in Christ from sin and death. God’s mercy is the reason for our hope, which is the theme of Jubilee 2025: “Pilgrims of Hope”, the official website for which can be found here: https://www.usccb.org/committees/jubilee-2025.
When we think of pilgrims, we normally think of the colonists who settled in New England and celebrated the first Thanksgiving in the 1600’s. We forget why those colonists left England and came to the new world. They sought a place where they would be free to practice their religion, giving God the glory and praise that is his due. Theirs was a sacred journey, and, while we do not share their Puritan religion, we see in them an image of the sacred journeys Christians have made throughout history, and still do today, to encounter God in more profound ways, to worship him in holy places and shrines, and to be renewed in his grace and mercy.
This world is not our home. We pass through this world of sorrow as pilgrims on a sacred journey toward the “new heaven and new earth” (Revelation 21:1) God has prepared for those who love him. Along that often dark and tortuous road, threatened at nearly every step by the immortal Robber, lying in wait to steal our souls, we need a guiding light and unbreakable armor. Christ is our unswerving light (John 8:12), whom we follow in faith, and our hope in him is our sturdy “helmet” (1 Thessalonians 5:8), protecting us from the blows of our Enemy, who constantly seeks to discourage and mislead us along the way. Hope in the salvation of Christ is our oasis in the desert of this world, giving us refreshment and strength to continue on the journey, however difficult it may become, until we reach at last the glory he has promised and share in our Master’s joy (Matthew 25:23). Let us embark together on the next leg of that journey through the upcoming jubilee year, and, by our shared reflection on the hope that Christ brings, may we be renewed to continue that journey together, through whatever dark valleys it leads, all the way to the end.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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