Archbishop of Dublin: We will grow in hope in Jubilee Year

Archbishop Dermot Farrell

Archbishop Dermot Farrell delivered this homily today during Mass in Saint Mary's Pro-Cathedral, Archdiocese of Dublin for the launch of the 2025 Jubilee Year:

"Jesus then went down with Mary and Joseph, and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority, and his mother stored up all these things in her heart (Luke 2:51).

Last May, when Pope Francis issued his letter to announce the Jubilee Year, the opening of which we celebrate today, he expressed his hope that "the Jubilee… would be a Holy Year marked by the hope that does not fade, our hope in God." And he continued, "May it help us to recover the confident trust that we require, in the Church and in society, in our interpersonal relationships, in international relations, and in our task of promoting the dignity of all persons and respect for God's gift of creation." (Spes Non Confundit -25)

The Holy Father has constantly put before us his vision of the Church, and of the world, as a people on a pilgrimage through time. Be it in his ongoing meditations on the 'journey of the Wise Men to Bethlehem,' or in his previous addresses at the World Youth Days, "the image of 'pilgrimage' has been a constant theme, as, for him, it "describes well our human condition; like pilgrims, we find ourselves facing great questions that have no simple or immediate answers, but challenge us to continue the journey, to rise above ourselves and to press beyond the here and now" (Address to the Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon, 3rd August 2023).

His sense of the Church as a pilgrim people, and of all of us in the world as in a pilgrimage through time, is born of his profound conviction about the vibrant aliveness of the People of God, and of the dynamic character of "the world and all its inhabitants," as it says in the psalm (see Psalm 24:1). The living God creates a world that is brimming with life, and ever-changing. While there is a stillness deep down things, a profound silence to be discovered and encountered, that discovery must happen in a movement of openness and welcome. Unless we go out to meet the world, most of the world God's offers us will be lost to us, and we to the world.

It is in this spirit that the engaging motto of this Jubilee Year, 'Pilgrims of Hope,' might best be heard. The Church is people on a journey outwards; especially in this time of apparent decline, when the temptation might be to close ranks, and turn to the security of what we appear to have always known. In a world overflowing with "ideas," it is vital to flesh out, what is at the heart of this motto. We might find one key in Pope Francis's hope for this Jubilee: that it may it be a "a Holy Year marked by the hope that does not fade …. May it help us to recover the confident trust that we require in the Church and in society …" (Spes Non Confundit - 25).

Hope and trust go hand in hand. Hope is not some feeling that all will be well; rather hope is the conviction of how things truly are, and how they truly will be. Hope is not the result of some type of analysis, a prognosis out of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. No! Hope is beyond logic: it is born out of a relationship. Hope is the expression of a reality that we have experienced.

This was brought home in a wonderful experience relayed by Father Henri Nouwen. In his later years, Nouwen had developed a particular friendship with a troupe of trapeze artists whom he had first encountered in a circus in his native Holland. For a time he even joined them on the road, filling notebooks with his detailed jottings on every aspect of their craft. He had been particularly fascinated by a remark from one of the 'flyers'-the seeming star of the trapeze act-who told him that, in fact, "the flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything." As the flyer explained, "when I fly to (the catcher) I have simply to stretch out my arms and hands and wait for him to catch me…A flyer must fly, and a catcher must catch, and the flyer must trust with outstretched arms, that the catcher will be there for him."

In the insight of these circus artists, Nouwen discovered an empowering and consoling wisdom. So often we measure our identity and success by how well we remain in control. But in the end the depth of our lives is to be discovered in our capacity to let go, to trust, to place ourselves in the hands of another. Hope and trust go hand in hand. All of this is rooted in a relationship: to let go, in the hope of being caught mid-air is the expression of the relationship that had been built up between these trapeze artists. To hold one's arms out in the confidence that one would be caught, flows from the relationship of trust that had been built up between these two brothers. It is no mere calculation; of course there is skill and practice involved, but is it much more than practice and skill. We let go, we give of ourselves in the confident hope that we will be caught.

In its own way, this mirrors the hope of Christ on the cross: even when his mission appears to have come to a halt, Jesus can still pray the words of the Psalm, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" (Matt 27:46, citing Psalm 22:1). Hoping against hope, he can place his life in his Father's hands: "Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit" (Luke 23:46).

There are two dimensions to our Jubilee motto: there is the hope dimension, the dimension that, when we are at our limit - or even beyond it - hope expresses from our relationship with the Lord and with each other. True hope always involves a leap, a leap born of a deep, maybe unknown, trust. Hope is that which permits us to make that leap, to move beyond ourselves.

There is also the 'pilgrim dimension.' Hope is not some quality that we receive all of a sudden. Hope comes to those who journey in hope. We put hope into practice. We live hope: it is the expression of a relationship between people who travel together. We travel with each other and we travel with God. Relationships, enduring relationships, take time to evolve.

At Christmas, reflecting on challenges to peace and on the character of peace-making, I was very taken by an 'image' of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince. He spoke of "peace as a tree which grows a long time." The same can be said of hope: "HOPE is a tree which grows a long time." Hope will grow among us, when we journey with hope.

There is a line in the psalms which captures how we might approach this mystery, it says:

"A king is not saved by his army, nor a warrior preserved by his strength.
A vain hope for safety is the horse, despite its power it cannot save (Ps 33:16-17)."

In the end, even when we journey together, it is the Lord who is our hope. That said, we cannot ignore the suffering and misery of those around us. "Love does not snatch us from the pain of time, but takes the pain of that which passes upon itself. Hope makes us ready to bear the cross of the present" (J Moltmann). As Pilgrims of Hope, we are all called upon to contribute to sowing seeds of hope everywhere, so that forgiveness allows us "to change the future and to live different lives, free of anger, animosity and vindictiveness" (Hope does Not Disappoint, 23).

During the upcoming Jubilee Year you are invited to journey the pilgrim path of the four churches in the inner city - Saint Andrew's Church on Westland Row, City Quay, Sean McDermott Street, Saint Mary's Pro-Cathedral - and Saint Kevin's Church, Glendalough. Called 'Pockets of Hope', this pilgrim route leads you through Pope Francis' document, Hope Does Not Disappoint from the opening lines in Saint Andrew's Church to its conclusions in Saint Mary's Pro-Cathedral, giving pilgrims time to ponder the richness of his witness to 'Hope'. It was in hope that Mary stored all these things - all that had happened to her - in her heart (see Luke 2:51).

My friends, may we make space in our hearts for the One who comes to save us. As we wait - in joyful hope - may we not wait passively but travel together to meet Him. May the Spirit give us hearts shaped by hope, open for the world and all its inhabitants, AND open for our Lord. Could we risk a journey that would transform our lives, and our Church, that would bring us to a new place?

Mary, Mother of Hope, pray for us. Amen.