From the Website of Vatican
links https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-01/pope-at-jubilee-audience-the-jubilee-invites-us-to-begin-again.html
In his first Saturday Jubilee Audience Pope Francis highlights the
Jubilee as a time for a new beginning, rooted in the transformative
power of God’s Kingdom , drawing on the example of John the Baptist, a
"great prophet of hope.”
At his first Jubilee Audience on
Saturday, 11 January Pope Francis framed the Jubilee as a moment of
grace, an invitation to "begin again." These words resonated throughout
his Catechesis, serving as both a call to action and a reminder of the
Jubilee's essence: the opportunity for everyone to start anew from God,
our ultimate source of hope.
To hope is to begin again
Hope,
the underpinning theme of the 2025 Holy Year, will be the focus of this
new cycle of bi-weekly audiences, which will integrate the traditional
Wednesday catechetical sessions throughout the year, representing an
ideal embrace for pilgrims visiting Rome in search of "a new beginning."
Addressing nearly 8,000 people in the Paul VI Hall, Pope
Francis centred his reflection on John the Baptist, whom he described as
a "great prophet of hope."
John the Baptist a great prophet of hope
Highlighting
John's pivotal role in the history of salvation, the Pope referred to
Jesus' praise of him as the "greatest among those born of women” (Lk
7:24,26-28).
John’s mission, marked by his call for repentance
and renewal symbolized by crossing the River Jordan, mirrors the
pilgrimage of Christians crossing the Holy Door during the Jubilee. This
act, Pope Francis explained, represents a new beginning, a deep
spiritual reset.
Hope as a gift of God
Hope, as the Pope
elaborated, is not merely “a habit or a character trait”, but a
“strength (“virtus” in Latin) to be asked for”, a divine gift that spurs
Christians “to start again on the journey of life.”
Pope Francis meeting the pilgrims in the Paul VI Hall during the Jubilee Audience
As
the Gospel of Luke tells us, it requires a recognition of our human
smallness in the face of the greatness of God. “It does not depend on
us, but on the Kingdom of God,” where even the "least" become great, the
Pope said.
“Welcoming the Kingdom of God leads us to a new order of greatness. Our world, all of us need this!”
Pope
Francis also addressed the struggles of faith, drawing on John the
Baptist's own moments of doubt during his imprisonment. These doubts,
the Pope noted, resonate with the challenges faced by Christians today
navigating a world where “many Herods” still “oppose the Kingdom of
God.”
Recognizing our smallness
Yet, he stressed,
the Gospel provides an antidote to this despair through its
transformative teachings, particularly the Beatitudes, which chart a new
path of hope.
Call to fraternity and responsibility for our common home
Pope
Francis concluded with a call to embrace hope and renewal through
service and fraternity, particularly towards the least, and through
responsibility for our "common home” the Earth “so abused and wounded.”
This, he concluded, is the essence of the Jubilee: a new beginning grounded in God and a commitment to love and service.
And
let us start again from this originality of God, which shone in Jesus
and which now binds us to serve, to love fraternally, to acknowledge
ourselves as small. And to see the least, to listen to them and to be
their voice. Here is the new beginning, our Jubilee!
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