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Pope Francis’ 1st Jubilee Audience
Audience Hall – Saturday, 11 January 2025
“Hope a strength to be asked for”
To hope is to begin again – John the Baptist
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22)
A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think that John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, ‘I baptize you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Now when all the people had been baptized and while Jesus after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily shape, like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on you.’
Dear brothers and sisters,
Many of you are here in Rome as “pilgrims of hope”.
This morning, we begin the Saturday Jubilee audiences, which will ideally welcome and embrace all those who are coming from all over the world in search of a new beginning.
Indeed, the Jubilee is a new beginning, the possibility for everyone to start anew from God.
With the Jubilee we begin a new life, a new phase.
On these Saturdays, from time to time, I would like to highlight, some aspects of hope.
It is a theological virtue, the Catechism tells us.
And in Latin, virtus means “strength”; so, it is a strength that comes from God.
Therefore, Hope is not a habit or a character trait – which you either have or don’t – but a strength to be asked for.
That is why we make ourselves pilgrims: we come to ask for a gift, to start again on the journey of life. We are about to celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, and this makes us think about that great prophet of hope, John the Baptist.
Jesus said something wonderful about him: that he was the greatest among those born of women (cf. Lk 7:28 – I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John; but he whoever is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”).
We understand then why so many people flocked to him, yearning for a new beginning, longing to start over. And the Jubilee helps us to do this.
The Baptist was truly great, he was credible in his personality.
Just as we pass through the Holy Door today, so John proposed to cross the river Jordan,
entering the Promised Land as Joshua had done the first time.
To begin anew, to receive the land all over again, like the first time.
Sisters and brothers, this is the word: begin again.
