Pope Francis invites us to be “Pilgrims of Hope” this Jubilee Year. I’ve been reflecting on what this means to me and to the world by looking at three key words: jubilee, pilgrims, and hope.
Jubilee
A Jubilee is a special time. Historically, it was a time when prisoners and slaves were freed, and debts were forgiven. Right relationships were re-established—between oneself and God and oneself and others. It was also a fallow period, during which farmers allowed the fields to recover from the strain of constant planting. The Jubilee Year is a time of renewal for the whole world. Essentially, it’s a hard reset.
Pilgrims
Recalling that St. Ignatius referred to himself as “the pilgrim,” this word resonates in a special way with practitioners of Ignatian spirituality. Like Ignatius, we are called to action this year—to put on our boots and go forth into the world. Remember also that when Ignatius set out on his pilgrimage, he was freshly out of months in bed recuperating from the cannonball hit. There was likely no physical therapy in those days, so we can assume that when Ignatius hit the road, while cabin fever must have had him raring to go, he was likely physically deconditioned. He was severely out of shape and had a new, permanent disability: a limp due to his shortened leg, which threw off his gait. There had to be more than a little pain involved in his pilgrimage.
The call to pilgrimage goes out to everyone, both the spiritual athletes and the walking wounded.
Likewise, the call to pilgrimage that we hear this year is not just for those fit pilgrims who have trained for months to walk the Camino de Santiago or the Camino Ignaciano. This call goes out to everyone, both the spiritual athletes and the walking wounded. All are called.
While pilgrimage is a journey forward into the world, it also involves going inward in silence. It’s a time to prayerfully sort out things.
Finally, pilgrims aren’t just on a long walk, they’re on a mission. What is our mission this year? First, we need to be refilled and reinvigorated by the Spirit. In this epidemic of loneliness, we need physical connectedness and community. Pilgrims come together, a convocation of all who have been called. This year is a special time of community building, camaraderie, and renewal on a shared journey embracing the hope of the Risen Christ.
Hope
Hope is a central theme of Francis’s pontificate, and the hope of which Pope Francis speaks is that profound, life-changing hope rooted in faith. It’s the kind of hope that springs forth when all hope seems lost, the hope of the Resurrection. It is this hope that is so desperately needed today in a world racked by war and natural disasters, poverty, illness, and suffering.
And so, this Jubilee Year, we are invited to come together as “pilgrims of hope”—establishing and renewing right relationships with God, our brothers and sisters, and the planet God has gifted to us, freeing the oppressed, welcoming the stranger, caring for the widow and orphan, and spreading the Good News.
I am excited for this year. We need community. We need renewal. We need healing.
And, surely, we need some Good News. The whole planet is yearning for it.
