By Vatican News
Addressing the faithful during the last Saturday Jubilee Audience of this Holy Year, Pope Leo XIV reminded Christians that the pilgrimage it inspired does not end.
“The Jubilee is drawing to a close,” the Pope said, “but the hope that this Year has given us does not end: we will remain pilgrims of hope.”
Beginning his catechesis with words regarding the approaching celebration of Christmas, Pope Leo XIV reflected on the meaning of Christian hope, rooted not in fear but in the closeness of God revealed in Jesus Christ.
Without Christ, he noted, the proclamation that “the Lord is near” could sound threatening; in Jesus, however, it becomes a promise of mercy.
“In Him there is no threat, but forgiveness,” the Pope said, pointing to the mystery of the Incarnation as the definitive sign of a God who gives life and continually renews it.
Without hope we are dead
Quoting Saint Paul’s words to the Romans, “For in hope we were saved”, Pope Leo XIV explained that hope is not a vague sentiment, but a living, generative force.
“Without hope, we are dead; with hope, we come into the light,” he said, describing hope as a theological virtue, “a power of God,” that brings forth life.
True strength, the Pope explained, is not found in domination or fear. “What threatens and kills is not strength,” he said, “it is arrogance, aggressive fear, evil that generates nothing.” God’s strength, by contrast, “gives birth,” and for this reason, he concluded, “to hope is to generate.”
Listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor
Turning to the groaning of creation described by Saint Paul, Pope Leo XIV invited the faithful to listen attentively to “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” lamenting the injustice of a world in which resources are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few. God, he recalled, intended the goods of creation for all.
“Our task,” he said plainly, “is to generate, not to steal.”
History is in the hands of God and those who hope in Him
Even suffering, the Pope noted, takes on a new meaning in faith: it becomes “the suffering of childbirth.” God continues to create, and human beings, sustained by hope, are called to cooperate in that creative work. “History,” he said, “is in the hands of God and of those who hope in Him.”
Reflecting on the Marian dimension of Christian prayer, Pope Leo XIV pointed to Mary of Nazareth as the living image of hope that gives life. In her, he said, believers see “one of us who generates,” one who gave “face, body and voice to the Word of God.”
“Jesus wants to be born again,” the Pope said. “We can give Him body and voice. This is the childbirth for which creation waits.”
“To hope,” he concluded, “is to see this world become the world of God.” – Vatican News
